VOD Victims of Darkness
by Dragonflyr
Summary: First of V.O.D. Chronicles. Two girls, an evil government conspiracy, demon scientists, and genetic mutations. You do the math. R&R COMPLETE!
1. Bad Dreams

Hey everyone! I'm having a bit of writer's block on my other two stories (Jumanji and the sequel to Prisoners) so I decided to post this fic that me and my best friend wrote last summer. She's been bugging me to post it for a while, and I figured now would be a good time.   
  
As I just said, I did not write this fic alone. It was written with the help of my very best friend, Kitsune no Kami. Don't look for the name on Fan Fiction, I don't think she has an account yet. We wrote another funny story together as well as a gag for one of our friends. It's called "Hiei meets Benjamin" because we wondered what would happen if Hiei ever met our spastic friend Benjamin. To give you a little idea of what Benjamin is like, his idol is Weird Al. Anyway, I hope to post that fic too, just as soon as we find it.   
  
The YYH characters do not belong to me. There, that's the disclaimer and it will only be in this chapter, so remember it. I think disclaimers are stupid. I mean, come on, if I owned it, it wouldn't be a 'fan fic,' would it?  
  
Anyway, little summery, Kairi is an average kid with a dark past. She and her little sister move from Kyoto to stay with their aunt in Tokyo, but are captured and 'experimented' on by some weird government-demon co-organization known as Nightmare. Yep, that's basically it. And there is a bit of romance, but I'm not going to spoil it. It should become obvious right away, though. Oh, and just so you know Kairi and her sister and her aunt and Yume (you meet later) are my characters, don't steal them. And Akira is Kitsune no Kami's character, so don't steal her either. That brings me to my next point. Later you met this cool character named Akira, and I realize that Akira is typically a boy's name, but in this fic she's a girl. So don't send me all these reviews that say "Akira is a boy's name," because I already know that. We named her after the writer of DBZ, so get over it.   
  
A few more things, and then I'll shut up and start the fic. This is like a prolog to a longer series that will be know as the V.O.D. (Victims of Darkness) Chronicles, so be prepaired for many installments over the summer and following year. And, one last thing, Sazume is Kairi's little sister and I know some of you out there aren't the best at pronouncing Japanese, I know some of my friends aren't. My friend Matt still can't say Kagome right. So, here's how you pronounce Sazume's name. Sa (with a short "a" sound)-zoom-a (with a long "a" sound) Kairi will also often just call her "Zoom." Okay, I think that's anything. If anyone has any questions or wants to know how to pronounce any other weird names I may put in here in the future, just tell me via a review. ENJOY V.O.D.!!!   
  
A tall woman wearing a flowing, white nightgown burst through the door into her daughters' room. She first went to the crib in the corner, gently lifting the mass of sleeping child into her arms. The baby yawned, stretching it's tiny arms into the air, but did not wake.   
  
The woman held the sleeping bundle close, brushing a stray wisp of flaxen hair from her clear, blue eyes. She went to the bed in the opposite corner of the room and gently shook the lump in the covers. The lump groaned and rolled over, turning it's back to her.   
  
"Kairi," the woman whispered, trying to hid the edge of fear her voice held. "Honey, please wake up."  
  
Kairi turned slowly, blue eyes identical to those of her mother's blinked sleepily upwards.  
  
"Mommy?" the girl asked. She was young, having only turned five two weeks ago. As she sat up, blond hair, also identical to her mother's, fell around her shoulders. Around her neck glinted a silver locket with her mother's picture inside. Her mother had given it to her for her birthday, and Kairi had been wearing it ever since.   
  
"Come on dear," her mother said, still trying to sound as normal as possible. She took the child's hand and quickly led her to the master bedroom. As they passed the stairs, there was a crash from somewhere in the darkness of the living room.  
  
"Mommy?" Kairi's fearful voice piped up, but her mother simply kept moving. Once inside the bedroom, her mother carefully handed the baby to her. Kairi cradled her little sister, Sazume, who was not yet even a year old.  
  
"Get in the closet," her mother instructed, the fear finally creeping into her voice.   
  
Sazume was still asleep in Kairi's arms, but Kairi on the other hand felt like crying. She was scared and confused and had no idea what was happening.   
  
Before Kairi could find the words to protest, her mother had opened the door to the walk in closet and pushed her inside.   
  
Kairi stared into the considerably darker room. Although the venetian door did let some light it, it wasn't as much as in the main room. Finally, Kairi's brain, which had all but shut down in her fear, began to work once more. Reaching up, she pulled several shirts off of their hooks and made a kind of nest on the ground. She then placed Sazume in this nest, and turned to look through the gaps in the venetian door.   
  
Her view was not particularly good, especially considering the limited light at three in the morning and the fact that her height was just over three feet, not giving her a very good view point. However, she was able to make out the outline of here mother, who was standing in front of the closet almost as if she was...waiting for something?  
  
Something wasn't right about this. What was going on? Kairi had just resolved to open the door and ask her mother what was wrong, when a movement at the door caught her attention. She couldn't see clearly at all, with her height and the terrible light, but she had the impression that whatever it was, it was big, mean, and dangerous. She was right.   
  
Her mother backed slowly towards the wall, until she was leaning against the closet door, blocking Kairi's view. Kairi shrunk back as well, moving to stand by Sazume's nest of shirts.   
  
She couldn't see through the door anymore, but she could hear that the monster was still advancing. She could make out a squealing, scraping sound as it's toe-claws dragged against the wooden floor of the room. Kairi whimpered slightly out of fear. Sazume, who had always been a heavy sleeper and hadn't cried for a bottle in the middle of the night since two weeks after her birth, was still oblivious to all that was going on around her, lost in dreamland.   
  
Then the scraping footsteps stopped, and what little light that had been shining through the door around her mother's form was blotted out. There was a squeak like the beginnings of a scream, but it was cut short before it grow to a true recognizable sound.   
  
Kairi stared in wide eyed terror, tears pricking at her eyes once she realized what the sound was...what it meant. Her mother's outline slowly sunk to a sitting position on the floor, and the figure standing before her retreated. Moonlight once again poured through the gaps in the venetian door, glinting off something that was forming from the crack under the door.   
  
Kairi took a step closer to see what the moonlight was shining on, and swallowed a scream. Blood. A puddle of blood was forming, seeping through the crack under the door. Kairi ran to the door, careful not to step in the expanding puddle, and pushed against the door. It wouldn't open. She pushed again, it still wouldn't budge. Her mother's body had fallen against the door and at five years old, she didn't have the strength to move that much weight.   
  
"Mommy?" Kairi whispered, her voice choked with fear, as she poked her mother's shoulder through a gap in the door.  
  
"Mommy?!" She tried again, this time more urgently. Now she could feel the blood reaching her feet, seeping between her bear toes. Kairi reached a hand through the door, her arm just small enough to reach through the venetian door's gaps. She shook her mother's arm forcefully, but her mother still didn't answer her.  
  
"MOMMY!" Kairi finally cried, squeezing her other arm through as well and shaking with all her might. Her mother's lifeless body fell over from the movement, landing on it's side. Kairi screamed when she saw the expression on her mother's pale face, the wide eyes and the look of total, utter, unspeakable horror. She screamed for all she was worth and stumbled backwards, tripping over a pair of shoes and landing on her back.   
  
Kairi woke up with a jolt and a scream. She was covered in cold sweat and her breathing was labored. Her eyes focused on her surroundings and she relaxed a little. It had only been a nightmare. No...not "a" nightmare, "the" nightmare. Kairi had had that same nightmare at least once a week ever since her mother's death. She had witnessed her mother's murder, and paid for it by reliving it once a week, every week.   
  
She sighed and got up, glancing at her bedside clock. 5:00 A.M. Quietly, she tiptoed to the bathroom. She turned the handle with the blue dot labeling it "Cold" and splashed her face.   
  
'That was thirteen years ago, you'd think I'd be over that by now,' she thought as she grabbed a towel to dry her face.   
  
But the truth was she wasn't over it, and she probably never would be. Soon after the "incident" her family had moved for Tokyo to Kyoto, leaving behind Kazuma Kuwabara, Kairi's only real friend. She hadn't made any new friends since. Her dad had met someone, a young girl in her late twenties named Sayoko. They hadn't even waited a year after Kairi's mother's death to get married. Sayoko was nice enough, but Kairi would never forgive her father for remarrying so soon. Now Kairi had two step-siblings. Toko, her step-sister, and Hikaru, her step-brother. Toko was the oldest, having recently turned nine, and Hikaru was a little younger at the age of seven.   
  
After his remarriage, Kairi's father had virtually ignored Sazume and herself. He had given Sazume a decent amount of attention until she was five, and therefor old enough to live without constant attention. Then he had turned all his effort towards his second wife and the children she gave him.   
  
The only real proof Kairi had that her father still even acknowledged her existence was the fact that he sent to every available psychologist in hopes of stopping her nightmares. Kairi knew every shrink in Kyoto with a degree on a first name bases. None of them had been able to help. She had been prescribed everything from pills to electroshock therapy. Her father had put his foot down on the shock therapy idea, thankfully.   
  
She sighed and fingered the locket around her neck. It was the one her mother had given her for her fifth birthday. It was less glamorous now. The original picture, which was still contained inside, was faded, and the exterior was tarnished from constant wear. She often played with it with her fingers when she was thinking, and she only took it off to swim or shower, otherwise, she always had it.   
  
She went back to her room, changing into clothes that she had laid out the previous night. Today was a big day. Today, her life would get better...hopefully. She was eighteen now, and had decided she wanted to go back to Tokyo and attend Tokyo University. It wasn't that TU offered anything that UK didn't, it was just that she wanted an excuse to get out of Kyoto and away from her father. Sazume, who was now thirteen, was coming with her. They were going to stay with their aunt Mai, their mother's younger sister. Mai was somewhat of a free spirit. She owned a bakery and refused to let anyone call her anything but Mai. No "Aunt Mai," no respectful Ms. Omeka, (Omeka is Kairi's mother's maiden name, obviously.) or anything like that, just Mai. She was really more like a big sister than a guardian.   
  
All of Kairi's psychologists had agreed that this trip would be good for her. Going back to Tokyo could help her, after all, the only friend she had ever made was there. In fact, Kazuma Kuwabara's house was on the same block as Mai's two story house and bakery. Kairi smiled at the thought of seeing her old friend again. She glanced back at the clock again, almost 5:30. Her father would be getting up soon.   
  
It was a quarter past 7:00, and everyone was up and seated around breakfast. Kairi quietly ate a waffle while Sazume and Toko fought over the syrup, Hikaru waited patiently for his mother to cut his own waffle for him, and Kairi's father read the newspaper, ignoring the waffle in front of him.   
  
"The bus leaves at eight," Kairi said quietly. She knew from experience that it took her family a long time to get ready to leave to go anywhere, and if they didn't start getting ready soon, they wouldn't make it in time.   
  
"She's right, dear," Sayoko said to her husband, "we should start getting ready.   
  
Her husband grunted agreement, still ignoring everything outside the paper.   
  
The car pulled up to the bus stop at 7:55. Kairi sighed in relief.   
  
'Just barely,' she thought.   
  
After Sayoko had spent five minutes cleaning syrup of Hikaru's face, Toko had wanted her hair combed. Fist she wanted a ponytail, but then she had changed her mind and said she wanted a braid. She had then proceeded to through a bawling fit for several minutes when her mother told her they didn't have time. Finally, after several promises that she would braid it when they got back, Sayoko persuaded her to go with the ponytail for now.   
  
Sazume smiled at Kairi as they got their things from the trunk of the car. Like Kairi, Sazume shared their mother's flaxen hair and bright blue eyes. She had her hair in two bushy pigtails on either side of her head, like she always wore it. Kairi, on the other hand, also had her hair in the usual style. She had pulled the front sides up out of her face with a white, cloth ribbon. But she didn't tie it in a bow, instead she let the excess hang loosely down on either side of her head.   
  
They handed their luggage to the bus driver, who was loading everything in the storage department on the outer side of the bus. Then they turned to say good-bye.   
  
"Good-bye" Kairi said curtly to her father.   
  
He nodded and mumbled "Have fun."  
  
"I'll miss you," Sazume said, throwing her arms around her father. Kairi turned away. Sazume didn't remember their mother, and so didn't hold any grudge against their father for remarrying. But Kairi was a different story.  
  
"Be good for you aunt," Sayoko said, pulling Kairi and Sazume both into a hug, sparring one arm for each of them.   
  
Kairi smiled. "We will."  
  
Toko was practically in tears.   
  
"Don't go!" she wailed, latching onto Kairi's legs.  
  
Kairi smiled wider. "Don't worry. I'll call and everything. I promise."  
  
She hugged Toko, then gently pried the little girl off of her.   
  
"Yeah, me too," Sazume nodded, also hugging Toko.  
  
"Bye-bye," Hikaru said simply, allowing Kairi to hug him.  
  
"See you. Don't drive your mom nuts, okay?" Kairi said cheerfully.  
  
"Yeah, that's Toko's job," Sazume joked as she also hugged Hikaru.  
  
Hikaru laughed and Toko let out an indignant "Hey!"  
  
"You, over there, we have to go now," the driver called to them.  
  
Kairi and Sazume waved one last time, then boarded the bus.  
  
Well, what did you think? Please review and let me know!   
  
Flaxen fine, straw colored. Basically, blond hair.  
  
Venetian like those metal window blinds that have horizontal strips so they let bars of light through.  
  
TU Tokyo Universaty  
  
UK University of Kyoto 


	2. Crazy Kairi

Hi!!! I'm back again! And with special guest....drumroll please....Kitsune no Kami who is physically sitting next to me right now!!! Second chapter is here!!!! I'm really spastic right now, bare with me. Oh, and this story takes place a few months after the end of the series and the Yakumo thing. So, Kurama is working at his step-dad's office, his little brother is in Jr. High, Kuwabara is studying for college, Hiei is just doing his own little thing, and Yusuke is, well, pretty much being himself. PLEASE ENJOY!!!!   
  
After the long bus ride, Kairi and Sazume collected their baggage and proceeded to the parking lot of the bus station. Mai was there waiting for them. She was wearing cut-off jeans shorts with a sleeveless Hawaiian shirt. She smiled warmly as they approached.   
  
"Have a good trip?" she asked as she loaded their luggage into the back of her red Jeep.   
  
"Well, there were no screaming babies, homicidal psychos, or couples making out if the aisles, so all and all it was okay," Kairi offered.   
  
Mai climbed into the driver's seat and Kairi got into the passenger side while Sazume climbed into the back. There was a whirl as Mai turned the key and started the engine, then they took off into the mid-day traffic of Tokyo city.   
  
Kairi closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of the wind as it pulled at her hair through the topless Jeep. Cars whizzed passed in multi-colored whirls of hot air. They rode in silence through the crowded streets. Sazume peered curiously at the tall buildings. Kyoto had office buildings, every major city did, but they were nothing compared to the sky scrapers of Tokyo.   
  
Kairi kept her eye's closed until she felt the wind recede as the Jeep slowed and she heard the engine drone to silence. Slowly, she opened her eyes and cast them upwards, taking in the building before her. It was a two story building at the end of the street. The sign out front read "Bake 'n' Take." A railed balcony overlooked the front of the store, indicating a living area located on the second floor.  
  
"Come on, I'll show you your rooms," Mai announced, handing Kairi and Sazume their bags as they stepped out of the car. She led them to the store's entrance, which was empty exempt for a red "Closed" sign. She took a ring of keys from her pocket and fished through them, searching for the right one. She found it and pushed it into the lock, turning it to the right and pushing the glass door opened. A faint ringing sounded through the empty shop as the door brushed against a clutter of bells hanging from the ceiling.   
  
Mai led them through the maze of empty tables and around the display counter holding the register. A steel door with a window set in the middle top half that was set off to the right and led to the bakery's kitchen. Another door, more to the left, opened to reveal a set of stairs, obviously leading to the second floor.   
  
She led them up into an organized, orderly living area. To the left was what passed for a living room. A couch was set directly across from a TV which had a VCR perched on top. A chair was set on either side of the couch and a coffee table was placed in the center of the circle created by the chairs, couch, and TV.   
  
On the right was the kitchen. A lone counter with stools placed around it served as a table. Between it and the back wall was a sink, an oven, a refrigerator, and some matching counters set against the wall on which perched an ancient microwave next to a crumb-covered toaster.   
  
Mai led them past all this and into the hallway that extended further back into the house.  
  
"Lucky for you this house has four bedrooms," Mai said as they walked. "The one at the end of the hall is the guest room. Kairi, yours is the first on the left, mine is the second, and Sazume, yours is the second on the right. The door that's first on the right leads to the bathroom. I had some furniture in storage and brought it up for your rooms. If you don't like it, we can always get more. Feel free to move anything you want. If you need anything, just holler. I'll be downstairs in the bakery."  
  
With that, Mai tuned on her heals and disappeared back down the staircase at the front of the house. Kairi exchanged a look with Sazume, then turned to go into her bedroom.   
  
The door was set on the far left side of the wall it was built into, leaving ample room to the right. In the space, a desk was set complete with swivel chair and Stereo system. Next to the desk, set on the wall next to the door, was a bulletin board, with multi-colored pins stuck in it, ready to be used.   
  
Kairi scanned the rest of the room. On the opposite wall from the desk was a closet, which Kairi ignored, and next to that was a night stand and a bed. Next to the bed was an empty bookcase, and across from that, against the same wall as the desk, was a chest of drawers.  
  
On the far side of the room, there was a sliding glass door with clean, white curtains drawn open and resting on either side of it. Kairi crossed the room to it and pushed it opened, walking onto the balcony she had seen from the street. Sazume's room also had a door leading to the balcony, and she joined her older sister shortly.  
  
They stood in silence for a long moment, surveying the city laid out before them.   
  
"Mai really went all out, huh?" Sazume spoke first.  
  
Kairi nodded. An uncomfortable, unsettling silence fell between them. Sazume hated this. Ever since their mother's death, Kairi had been detached from everyone, even Sazume. She barely ever told Sazume anything and was quiet most of the time, like she was now. Sazume couldn't remember what Kairi was like before the "incident," but she was sure it was nothing like this.   
  
"It's only noon," Sazume broke the silence. "We could go and try to find our way around town. You know, so we don't get lost tomorrow when we are trying to go to school."  
  
Kairi remained silent for a minute, then pushed back from the railing with a sigh.  
  
"Alright, go find a road map, will ya?" Kairi said as she headed back to her room, an enthusiastic Sazume in tow. "Doesn't Mai have a bike hiding somewhere around here?"  
  
A boy with flaming red hair and intelligent, emerald eyes stared out of the open third-story office building window and on to the crowed street below. Kurama was bored. He was the youngest employee at the office, and despite the fact that he had proven himself quiet capable of handling any and all situations, no one ever seemed to have anything for him to do. He sighed, drumming his fingers absently on the desk as he gazed down at the street below.  
  
There was virtually nothing for him to do. He had checked with everyone, and any paperwork that needed to be done had been done, any errands that needed to be run had been run, and that morning had been the one morning Kurama had been in a hurry to leave the house and he had forgotten his book! He spared a moment to glance at the discarded paper laying on his desk, then tuned back to the street. He had read the morning's newspaper three time already, and had no desire to read it again.   
  
His gaze drifted from one side of the street to the other and back again. There wasn't much to see outside, but he continued to stare. It was the middle of a hot, Friday afternoon. Everyone was either at school, work, or running errands for whatever reason. The most eventful thing that had happened so far was when a boy in a blue school uniform had walked by, obviously skipping school, causing him to chuckle slightly as he was reminded of Yusuke. Other than that, though, nothing interesting had happened.   
  
Just as he was about to get up once more and see if ANYONE needed ANYTHING, something caught his eye. A girl, who looked about a year younger than him, came into view on a bike. She was hunched over the basket and pedaling only just often enough to keep the bike moving at a snail-crawl pace. A closer look told him that she was staring at a map of the streets, obviously trying to figure out where she was. She had flaxen hair that was pulled up with a loose ribbon which had not been tied in a bow, and when she looked up to see the street sign, he clearly glimpsed her bright, blue eyes.   
  
A thought ran though his mind. A thought that she was...pretty? NO! He mentally slapped himself. What was he thinking? He'd had plenty of girls falling all over each other just to have a thirty second conversation with him in High School, and he'd never thought any of them were 'pretty,' at least not in the way he thought this girl was.   
  
Abruptly, he pulled himself out of his thoughts and concentrated on the scene below. She was looking down at the map again, and was so intent on reading it that she didn't see the car waiting to turn in front of her until it was too late. She only barely hit the bumper, but the girl was so surprised that she didn't manage to regain her balance in time and the bike tipped over.   
  
"Hey! Watch it!" Kurama heard the angry driver yell, leaning out the window of his car and shaking his fist at the girl.  
  
"Sorry," she apologized as she picked herself up, righted her bike, and walked it up onto the sidewalk. She looked back at the road, confused for a moment, before realizing what had happened. The bike lane moved into the middle of the street at the intersection so that cars could turn, but there was too much traffic for her to get over there.   
  
The girl sighed and looked around her. Kurama's better than average ears just barely caught her muttering the words "Great. Now what?" As Kurama continued to watch, another girl came into view. She was running down the street towards the first girl, bushy pigtails bouncing as she went.  
  
"You...could...have...waited...for...me...Kairi!" Kurama heard the girl gasp as she strained to regain her normal breathing. The new girl was obviously the first girl, Kairi's sister. She had the same blond hair and when she looked up, Kurama could make out the same blue eyes as well. As Kurama stared at the second girl, he made a mental assessment of her age.  
  
'She looks about Shuichi's age,' he concluded, referring to his younger step-brother.   
  
"Sorry Sazume," Kairi said, smiling at her sister.  
  
'She's even more beautiful when she smiles,' the thought ran through Kurama's head before he could stop it. This time he almost physically slapped himself. WHAT WAS HE THINKING?!?!?!   
  
Sazume sighed as she straightened up. "It'll take forever to get through that crosswalk in this traffic," she said, folding her arms.   
  
"No. There's got to be a faster way," Kurama heard Kairi say.   
  
"Yeah, how?" Sazume retorted, pushing the crosswalk button rapidly. Kairi stared at a truck parked next to her at the corner of the intersection. Suddenly, she turned and walked her bike a considerable distance back down the street.   
  
"Kairi? What are you doing?" Sazume asked, turning around. Kurama was wondering the same thing. He turned to look at the truck Kairi had been staring at, and with a horrified jolt, he understood. The back of the truck had been tilted back to unload whatever cargo it had been carrying. Now it resembled a giant ramp. Kairi was planning to jump of the ramp and soar over the entire street instead of crossing it!   
  
Sazume must have realized Kairi's plan as well, because now she ran after Kairi yelling, "Kairi! Please don't do this! You're going to get hurt, or worse! KAIRI!!!"  
  
Kairi ignored her sister's pleas, turning her bike to face the ramp. She took a pair of green-tinted sunglasses from her pocket and pushed them onto her face.   
  
"Kids, don't try this at home," Kurama heard Kairi say before she started pedaling for the ramp. She picked up speed quickly, but to Kurama she seemed to be moving in slow motion. He had known this girl for all of five minutes, had some absurd thoughts about her, and never introduced himself, but somehow he was worried about her as if he had known her all his life.   
  
His wide, horrified eyes followed her up the ramp...and off. He realized he was holding his breath as he watched her soar over the cars.   
  
'She's not going to make it!' he realized with a jolt as she began to loose altitude when she was barely half way across. Sure enough, Kairi didn't make it, not all the way. She came down hard on the top of a blue car in the far lane and half bounced, half fell onto the sidewalk beyond.   
  
"KAIRI! HAVE YOU TOTALLY LOST YOUR MIND?!?!?!" Sazume screeched as she raced across the street, the walk sign having just flashed green.   
  
Kurama stared for a long, long, LONG moment. He watched Sazume help Kairi get up of the ground and then yell at her nonstop as the pair walked down the street and out of sight. Not until after they were gone did Kurama realize how fast his heart was beating, how much sweat had accumulated on his brow, and the fact that he was leaning dangerously out the window. He quickly pulled himself back in, hitting his head on the upper part of the window as he did so.   
  
"Ouch!" he muttered, rubbing the spot on the back of his head as he sat down again in his chair. That girl...Why was he so concerned with that girl? He knew plenty of girls, but none of them had ever made him act like that...made him THINK like that. He pondered it for a moment longer. Could it be...? NO! Absolutely not! Love at first sight was a stupid fairy tale theme. It didn't really happen. And besides, he was a demon. It should be impossible for him to love a human.  
  
'What about your mother?' a voice in the back of his head asked.   
  
But that was different...wasn't it? Yes! Definitely different. She had sacrificed things for him, always been there for him, he couldn't help but return her love. But this girl...he hadn't even said a word to her and she hadn't even known he was watching her. It wasn't the same thing. It wasn't! Was it? 


	3. Confusing Feelings

Kurama spent the rest of the day thinking about that girl. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep her off his mind. Around 3:30, he decided he would leave for the day and take a walk through the park to try and clear his mind. In any case, it wasn't like he'd be missed if he left a little early.  
  
School was out by now, and children ran to and fro playing this game or that as he walked through the park. He smiled faintly as a girl forced him to stop as she ran a circle around him, trying to escape a young boy who was chasing her. He watched them disappear among the surrounding trees, then turned his gaze ahead of him once more.   
  
He continued his walk along the path, enjoying the breeze that blew the sent of the blossoming flowers his way. It was late in August and the last blossoms of the season were in full bloom. Soon, the fall colors would claim the green around him and the autumn death would begin.   
  
He rounded a corner, now focusing his thoughts on the flowers around him, when he happened to glance at the bench in front of him. He stopped, eyes wide. On the bench was that girl, and her sister, and...Kuwabara? He remained there, staring for some time until Kuwabara finally noticed him.  
  
"Hey, Kur-" Kuwabara caught himself, side glancing at Kairi and Sazume, "uh...Shuichi, over here!" It felt more than weird to call Kurama by his human name, but Kuwabara figured it was probably best to introduce him by his human name to other humans. It would prevent confusion later. Or would it?   
  
Kuwabara was still pondering whether he had done the right thing by introducing Kurama as Shuichi, when Kurama regained his composure and calmly approached the bench.  
  
"Who are your friends, Kuwabara?" Kurama asked, acting as though he had never laid eyes on the girls before.   
  
"Oh," Kuwabara suddenly pulled himself out of his thoughts and addressed his friend, "This is Kairi and her little sister, Sazume. Me and Kairi were friends when we were little, but she moved away. She and her sister are staying with her aunt. She owns a bakery, you know, that place by my house. What's it called?"  
  
"'Bake 'n' Take,'" Sazume informed him.  
  
"Right! That place. Anyway, now Kairi's going to be going to my college. Oh, and I think Sazume is going to you little bro.'s school," Kuwabara finished, then he turned to the girls sitting next to him. "Kairi, Sazume, this is K-...Shuichi," he said, almost calling him Kurama again. Kairi giggled at Kuwabara's mistake.  
  
"Gee," she said to Kurama, "for a friend, he doesn't now your name too well, huh?" She smiled warmly at him and he was hard put to suppress a faint blush that threatened to creep onto his face. Bush? BLUSH!?!? He mentally slapped himself once more. What was this girl doing to him?  
  
Kuwabara blinked in confusion, noticing that Kurama had been lost in thought for a few minutes now.   
  
"Anything wrong?" he asked.   
  
"What?" Kurama abandoned his thoughts and forced himself to concentrate on what was going on around him. "Oh...No. I'm fine." He gave Kuwabara a reassuring smile when he continued to stare, but it still didn't convince the orange-haired punk that his friend was alright.  
  
"Hey, Ferret-face?" Kairi suddenly asked. Kuwabara turned to her but didn't get a chance to hear her question because Kurama interrupted.  
  
"'Ferret-face?'" he asked, suppressing a laugh.  
  
"Yeah, you see-" Kairi began.  
  
"Oh-no. Don't tell him, please," Kuwabara whined, dreading the grief Hiei would give him if the shrimp ever discovered his nick-name.   
  
"-when we were in kindergarten," Kairi continued, ignoring Kuwabara's protests, "this kid brought his ferret in for show-and-tell. And it looked exactly like Kuwabara!!!"   
  
"It did not!" Kuwabara argued hotly.  
  
"You kidding?! You two could have been twins!" Kairi said simply. She was laughing now, and Sazume had begun to laugh as well. Apparently the laughter was contagious because despite the fact that Kurama was trying exceptionally hard to hate this girl who was making him act so strangely, he found himself laughing as well. Only Kuwabara didn't laugh. He sat on the bench, fuming.   
  
When the laughter subsided, Kurama opened his eyes to find Kairi staring at him. He stiffened slightly, but not noticeably. He could feel that blush coming back again and fought hard to suppress it. Now it was Kuwabara's turn to tease. As he glanced at his red-headed friend he noticed the wide eyed look he was giving Kairi and, although Kurama was fighting against it, Kuwabara clearly saw a split second of red on Kurama's cheeks. The younger boy smiled mischievously.  
  
"Shuichi..." he started, careful to use his friend's human name, "was that a blush I just saw?"  
  
Kurama visibly stiffened and turned towards Kuwabara. Had he seen? Had he guessed the confusing feelings Kurama was experiencing towards this strange girl? No. Kuwabara wasn't that smart. Was he?  
  
Kuwabara's smirk widened as he met Kurama's startled gaze. "You like her, don't you?" he teased. Kairi and Sazume both turned to stare at him.  
  
"Who?" they asked in unison.  
  
"You," Kuwabara said simply, turning to smile at Kairi. Kairi's eyes widened and she turned to stare at Kurama. He noticed she wasn't blushing, which is what almost any other girl in the world would have done if they had just been told that Shuichi Minamino liked them. She seemed more startled then anything else. Kurama on the other hand was now fighting a loosing battle as, little by little, he felt his cheeks grow hotter as they turned red.   
  
"Ha! I knew it!" Kuwabara cried, jumping up and pointing a triumphant finger in Kurama's face. Kurama just stood there, not sure what to do. He looked from Kuwabara to Kairi and back again. To be honest, he wasn't sure what he felt towards this girl. All he knew was that it was a completely new feeling that he had never in his life, human or demon, experienced before.   
  
Sazume had noted the uncomfortable situation which was steadily getting worse, and decided it was time to leave.   
  
"Kairi," she said quietly. Her sister dragged her gaze from the red-head before them and turned to look at Sazume. "We should be going. Mai said she wanted us home by 4:30, remember?"  
  
Kairi was eighteen and felt she was too old to have to be back at certain times like a little kid, but she was getting tired of being talked about like she wasn't sitting right here. "Alright." she agreed with her sister, getting up and seating herself on her bike, pushing the kick-stand up with the heal of one foot. "See you Ferret-face. Um...." she paused, unsure what to say to Kurama. "Good-bye Shuichi," she said more quietly. Then she kicked the pedals into motion and sped down the path, Sazume jogging after her.   
  
Kurama and Kuwabara stood where they had been frozen for several minutes already. Kuwabara was still wearing his goofy smile and Kurama was half staring, half glaring at him. Kuwabara broke the silence.   
  
"I'm right, aren't I?" he said, sitting on the bench once more. Kurama considered the question, then sat on the bench as well.  
  
"To be honest, I don't know," he admitted, staring upwards at the Sakura tree the bench was placed under.   
  
"What do you mean?" Kuwabara asked. Kurama sighed, then gave Kuwabara an account of the events that had occurred earlier that day. When he had seen Kairi through the window, and everything that had gone through his head. Kuwabara sat quietly and listened, all thoughts of teasing driven away as he realized that his friend really wasn't sure about his feelings towards the golden-haired girl.  
  
It felt strange to tell these things to Kuwabara, but he already knew Kairi, so Kurama figured he probably was the best one to talk to. He certainly couldn't ask Hiei after all. When he finished his story, he waited patiently for Kuwabara to say something.   
  
"Sorry," Kuwabara said at length.  
  
"For what?" Kurama asked, taken back by his answer.  
  
"For teasing you. I didn't know that you...well..." Kuwabara trailed off. There was silence for a moment, then Kuwabara regained his voice. "I don't know what to tell ya. I think this is something you gotta figure out on your own. But, you know, you're like the smartest guy I know. You'll figure it out."  
  
Kurama smiled at the encouragement. "Yes, I will," he agreed. There was silence again and Kurama was thinking about leaving when Kuwabara suddenly began talking again.  
  
"You know, I probably shouldn't tell you this, but...there's something you should know about her," he said, suddenly becoming very grave.   
  
"What is it?" Kurama asked, turning his full attention back on Kuwabara.  
  
"Well...Kairi...she..." Kuwabara stumbled over his words, searching for the right ones. "The reason she moved...you see...her Mom...she was..." Kurama continued to stare, waiting patiently for Kuwabara to find the best words to express whatever he was trying to get across.  
  
"Kairi's Mom was killed in front of her when she was five. That's why they moved," Kuwabara finally said in a voice just above a whisper. Kurama's eyes widened but he didn't say anything, waiting for Kuwabara to continues. "She was hiding a closet with one of those vene...venes...those doors you can see through like window blinds."  
  
"Venetian," Kurama supplied the word.  
  
"Right. She saw the whole thing, and ever since...she's been kinda...detached, you know? In fact, I was really surprised when she was laughing with us earlier. She must have been in a good mood. Most of the time she's real sad, almost depressed. She only acts happy so no one will worry about her. She has bad nightmares too. I just thought...I mean, if you're really serious about her...that you should, you know, know."  
  
With that, Kuwabara got up off the bench and began walking in the direction of his house, leaving Kurama there to process all he had just heard. It was hard to believe. The pretty, smiling, happy, girl who he had watched jump over a street on her bike had really been through all that? He pondered the thought for a moment longer before Kuwabara interrupted.  
  
"By the way," Kuwabara called over his shoulder. "Koenma wants us to meet Botan tonight. Midnight, behind Urameshi's apartment building." 


	4. Midnight Meeting

It was a few minutes before midnight. Darkness covered the world, only broken here and there by dim street lamps. There was no light behind Yusuke's apartment complex save for a distant street lamp some ten yards away.   
  
Hiei was leaning against the building, his arms folded and his eyes closed. Kurama was standing a short ways away from the building, hands thrust deep into the pockets of his brown jacket. Yusuke was leaning against a tree, staring at the street. Kuwabara had yet to arrive.   
  
All three heard a far off clock strike midnight and ring twelve times. Botan appeared in the sky and touched down on the ground before the last bell chimed. She looked around at all of them, shouldering her oar.   
  
"Where's Kuwabara?" she asked.   
  
"The fool hasn't graced us with his presence yet," Hiei answered shortly, not bothering to open his eyes as he spoke. The sound of distant footsteps made them all turn. Kuwabara came sprinting up the street, nearly collapsing when he skidded into the grass behind Yusuke's building. He doubled over, placing a steadying hand on the tree Yusuke was leaning against.   
  
"It's about time," Yusuke grumbled. He didn't really want to be here right now. He had told Koenma already that he wasn't going to do this anymore. He had purposed to Keiko a short month ago and refused to continue being Spirit Detective once they were married, it simply put his wife-to-be at too much risk, it always had. But Koenma had convinced him to keep taking missions until a replacement was found, or the wedding took place, whichever came first.   
  
"Sorry," Kuwabara apologized, "What did I miss?"  
  
"Nothing yet," Botan assured him in her usual, bubbly voice. "Well, now that we're all here, lets begin," she continued cheerfully.  
  
"Botan, this isn't a picnic," Yusuke said in an exasperated tone. Her attitude towards the meeting annoyed him beyond having to be here in the first place. This was a mission, after all, and missions never meant good news. It was always the world was coming to an end, or some demons were killing off the human race or else brain washing them or something. With the possible exception of Yukina's kidnapping way back when, no mission they had taken on had ever not included mass murders and destruction.   
  
Botan's cheerfulness went down a notch at Yusuke's words. "Well excuse me for trying to be in a good mood," she huffed.  
  
"What's the point? We all know that if it's important enough for you to call us out here in the middle of the night it must not be anything even remotely good," Yusuke argued back. Botan was about to open her mouth to protest again when Kurama interrupted, breaking up the fight.   
  
"Botan, what is it you have to tell us?" he asked quietly.  
  
"Oh, right," Botan jerked her head to face the rest of them. She took a deep breath, then began to explain.   
  
"A little over a hundred years ago, the Japanese government began researching procedures to enhance the strength of their military forces. In order to gather research on the subject, an organization known as Nightmare was created. This organization was not bound by legal standards. They were basically allowed to do whatever they wanted, to whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted. There were no rules and no restrictions holding them back. Many of the deaths during the late 1800's were because of side effects caused by the experiments Nightmare performed on the humans of the time. Then, in 1919, a successful experiment was performed. It has since been know as Demonic Fusion."  
  
"'Demonic Fusion?' What's that?" Kuwabara asked.  
  
"Just what it sounds like," Botan said matter-of-factly. "Demonic fusion is a procedure that usually works best on humans in their late 'teens or during early stages of life when their bodies are still developing. It is a process that takes demonic DNA, and even a soul extracted from a demon, and fuses it with the pre-existing human DNA and soul. However, the only one to ever survive it was the first test subject back in 1919."  
  
"But that doesn't make sense. Hasn't medical stuff gotten better since then?" Yusuke questioned.   
  
"Well yes, but the first success was a fluke. They hadn't expected it to work and so hadn't taken notes. Now, no one is exactly sure how they did it," Botan informed him.  
  
"Who was the first test subject?" Hiei asked, genuinely curious.   
  
"We don't know. He or she escaped shortly after the procedure," Botan answered. "But, even though the first test subject escaped, Nightmare was encouraged by their success and has been running experiments on humans ever since. No one who has been fused has survived since the first subject. They have been running the experiments for eighty-five years now, and the death toll is somewhere in the seventies. Nightmare is so secretive that we aren't sure of the exact number of human's tested, but we do know that there have been no successes."  
  
"How do you know that?" Kuwabara asked.   
  
"We hacked into the Nightmare database. The experiment records are highly guarded, that's why we don't have an exact number, but we do know that there are no living specimens left, save for the first one," Botan said rather proudly.  
  
"If Nightmare has been doing this for eighty-five years, how come were trying to stop them now?" Yusuke asked.   
  
"Well," Botan said hesitantly, "I already said that Nightmare is secretive. We've had our suspicions for a while, but weren't able to gather enough evidence to prosecute them until we hacked into their system last week."  
  
"Where's their base of operations?" Kurama inquired.  
  
"We're still working on that one," Botan admitted quietly.  
  
"If you don't have all the information yet, then why did you call us out here?" Hiei asked in an annoyed tone.   
  
"Because," Botan reared on him hotly, "this way you guys can keep an eye out for anything suspicious and maybe stop Nightmare from killing anyone else while we gather all the facts."  
  
"I'd like to know more about this Demonic Fusion, as well as Nightmare itself," Kurama strategically stopped the inevitable fight.   
  
"Oh, well...I'll start with Nightmare then," Botan said, tapping her chin with her finger as she thought of all she knew about the organization. "If I remember correctly, Nightmare began as an all human organization. But when the Demonic Fusion began, they found it easier to obtain and work with demonic souls and DNA if they had a team of demon scientists as well."  
  
"There was some promised reward for these scientists I presume?" Kurama interjected.  
  
"Yes, actually. They were promised to be allowed to freely roam the human world and do as they wished without being hindered by human governments, once the experiment was completed. Of course though, the experiment never was completed and Nightmare never intended to keep that promise in the first place. They planned to kill all the demons involved in their experiments as soon as the correct procedure for the Demonic Fusion was found."  
  
"Of course," Kurama murmured. "And about the fusion...?"  
  
"Right. Well...it's kinda complicated," Botan stated, pausing as she wondered where to begin. "Well, for starters, there are two steps to the Demonic Fusion. First is the Spiritual Fusion, and then the Genetic Fusion."  
  
"Demonic Fusion? Spiritual Fusion? Genetic Fusion? Too many fusions! I'm really confused now!" Kuwabara cried in frustration, trying to process all the information he was being given.   
  
"You were born confused," Hiei grunted.  
  
"Shut it Shrimp!" Kuwabara yelled, clenching his fists threateningly.  
  
"Children, enough! There are people tying to sleep around here you know," Yusuke said irritably, stepping in front of Kuwabara so he couldn't rush at Hiei. Kuwabara relaxed slightly while Hiei grunted his trademark "Hn."  
  
"Botan, what is the Spiritual Fusion?" Kurama asked, getting the conversation back on track. He had been doing that a lot tonight.  
  
"The Spiritual Fusion," Botan began in a very college-professor-manner, "is a process that fuses the demon soul with the soul of the human being experimented on. It has been done many different ways over the years, but the gist of the whole thing is to trap both souls within the human's body and force them to become one. Many of the test subjects don't even make it through that phase of the procedure."  
  
"I would imagine not. Such a thing would put a horrible strain on the body. And if the body is not destroyed form the inside, the souls would most likely force each other out rather than bond," Kurama concluded.   
  
Botan nodded gravely. "Yes, that is typically what happens, and if they survive that, then there's the Genetic Fusion." She took a breath and regained her professor-voice. "The Genetic Fusion," she began, "takes the DNA from the demon who's soul was fused with the human's and adds it to the human's DNA. In some cases, surgical procedures are performed to transfer things such as ears or tail to the human subject."  
  
"What's the point in that?" Yusuke wanted to know.  
  
Botan blinked. She hadn't been prepared for that. "Well...um..."  
  
"The point," Kurama answered for her, "is that some demons have physical abilities that humans simply don't. In order for the fused humans to obtain these abilities, an operation may be in order to, as Botan said, transfer certain body parts of use to the fused human's body."  
  
"I couldn't have said it better my self!" Botan cried enthusiastically.   
  
"Which brings me to my next question," Yusuke said. "Why are they doing this in the first place?"  
  
"I already told you, to enhance the fighting abilities of the Japanese army!" Botan said in an exasperated voice.   
  
"Yes, but why? This whole thing sounds like a procedure to turn a human into a demon. If they want a demon army, then why go through all this trouble?" Yusuke argued.   
  
"Don't be stupid," Hiei scoffed. "Do you really think any self respecting demon would take orders from a human commander? Obviously they want a powerful army that will obey them. This way, it will have all the strength of a demon army, but all the fused humans will still have their own minds. Well, more or less anyway."  
  
"Okay, that's one question answered. But you still haven't answered why they want this so badly in the first place. I mean, they've been at it for over a hundred years, right? Why do they want it so much?"   
  
"Because of war," Botan said simply. "Think about it Yusuke. What kind of chance would an army of human's stand against an army of demons? Even if they were equal in number, the human's would never survive. Guns don't really stand up to acid breath, or energy blasts...or spirit guns." Yusuke had a mental image of hundreds, no thousands of humans being wiped out by every kind of demon he could imagine. Botan was right. Such a war was hopeless for the human side.   
  
"But," Kuwabara put in, having been silent for a while now, "why are they doing these experiments on random humans they kidnap of the streets? Why not on the soldiers it's going to be eventually used on?"  
  
"First off," Botan answered, "we don't think the test subjects are entirely random. We believe there is some connection, but we just can't find it yet. And second, the government doesn't want to risk any of their soldiers dying and doesn't want Nightmare to start testing it on them until they are sure it is safe."  
  
"Oh, of course!" Yusuke cried. "They can kill thousands of innocent kids but they dare not lay a hand on the people who the procedure is really for. Pfst!" he spit off to the side, "I hate people like that!"  
  
Botan sighed, then seated herself on her oar, hovering several inches from the ground.   
  
"That's all I know. I'll let contact you if we find any more information. Until then, keep your eye's pealed for anything suspicious!" She yelled the last sentence over her shoulder as she disappeared into the starry night sky. 


	5. Bus Ride in the Rain

Hey everybody! Sorry I took a few days to update, but a lot has been going on lately. May is the last month of school at my school, and I've had a lot of end-of-the-year-stuff to deal with. My Musical Theatre class is doing a play called "School House Rock Live!" this week. You know School House Rock, right. Conjunction Junction, and Interplanet Janet, and Interjections? Well if you haven't seen any of them...then...wow. Anyway, we performed for our parents Thursday night and for the school during the day on Friday, and we've had dress-rehearsals almost every day this week. I even got out of school on Monday to go perform for a couple elementary schools all day! By the way, the co-writer of this story, Kitsune no Kami was also in the performance, neat huh? Oh, and yes, in the story today is Saturday and in Japan, everyone goes to work and school on Saturday. Sucks, doesn't it? Anyway, enough of my ramblings on...ON WITH THE FIC!!!  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Kairi sat quietly at the back of the bus. After her little 'stunt,' Sazume had argued with her all night until she promised to take the city bus to school like a civilized person. It was a little past four now and, after having spend the day meeting all her new professors at the college, Kairi was on her way to the book store to get all the text books she would need for her various classes. She was surprised when a boy she recognized entered the bus at the next stop and took a seat next to her.  
  
------------------  
  
Kurama was waiting patiently at the bus stop. He had wanted to stop by the book store on his way home to see if they had anything new, he'd read just about every other book there already. On most days, he would have walked, but storm clouds had gathered in the sky and the scent of rain was in the air. He had changed his mind in favor of the bus as oppose to walking and being rained on when he was only half way there.   
  
The bus pulled up just as a fork of lightning flashed overhead and Kurama felt a drop of water land on his hand as he stepped inside the bus. Sure enough, no sooner had the bus' door closed, did it start to rain, hard. Kurama turned, ignoring the thunderclaps and the constant tap of the rain on the exterior of the bus that so fascinated the younger children all around him. He could only see one empty spot, and his eyes widened in shock when he caught sight of the girl sitting next to it.   
  
------------------  
  
Kairi didn't look up as the red head Kuwabara had introduced as Shuichi took a seat next to her. She thought back to what Kuwabara had said, how he had been teasing him over blushing...blushing at her. But that couldn't be right. Ferret-face must have been mistaken! Right?  
  
Kairi spared a glance out of the corner of her eye at the boy next to her. He was looking away, staring out the window. She turned her gaze back for the floor. Normally, she would never associate with anyone on the bus, but for some reason she felt attracted to this boy, no in a romantic way so much as a magnetic way. A way that made her feel comfortable just by sitting here next to him saying nothing.   
  
But despite that, the silence had to end. It was becoming awkward and it needed to stop. Kairi tried to think of something to start a conversation with, but drew a blank. She had always made it a point to be very antisocial, and now she didn't know how she could start a friendly conversation without sounding intrusive or offending him. After some time, she took a deep breath and just said the first thing that came to mind.  
  
"So...it was Shuichi, right?"   
  
------------------  
  
Kurama stiffened slightly. Had she been talking to him? Well, he reasoned, what other 'Shuichi' does she know? He turned slightly and once again found himself fighting a blush as he stared into her crystal blue eyes. As he looked, however, he found they weren't as bright as he once thought they were, certainly not as bright as her sister's eyes. No, Kairi's eyes were dulled by sorrow and pain. He stared for a long time...to long. He suddenly realized he must be making her uncomfortable and turned back to the window.   
  
------------------  
  
Shuichi tuned at Kairi's question. He stared into her eyes for a long time...to long. The silence was becoming awkward again, made even more so this time due to his staring. He seemed to suddenly realize what he was doing and quickly turned away, staring out the window once more.   
  
"Yes, Shuichi, that's right," he confirmed, still not looking at her.   
  
"Remember me? From yesterday in the park?" she questioned.   
  
------------------  
  
'Remember you? I couldn't forget if I tried...and I have tried," Kurama thought at her ridiculous question.   
  
"I remember you. Kairi, right?" is what he said, turning slightly to look at her out of the corner of his eye. Try as he might he still couldn't deny his original thought; the thought that she was...beautiful.  
  
----------------  
  
Kairi nodded as he said her name, seeing him turn to look at her once more. She had been too embarrassed by Kuwabara's actions yesterday to take a good look at Shuichi, but now she did. He was quite handsome. Long red hair, bright emerald eyes... She mentally slapped herself. What was she doing?!?! She was letting herself become more and more attracted to this boy, and not in a magnetic sense. How could she even think of such a thing!?!? After he mother's death, she had promised not to lose anyone else, not to let anyone get close. Acting this way towards this boy...she was only setting herself up to be hurt once more.   
  
"Where are you going on such a rainy afternoon?" Shuichi asked. Kairi blinked, yanked from her thoughts, and found herself staring into those bright emerald eyes of his. She swallowed in surprise, fighting off a blush. She wouldn't give in, she couldn't! She simply refused to subject herself to the kind of pain involved in getting close to someone, not again.   
  
"The book store," she answered simply, trying but finding herself unable to break his gaze and look down.   
  
----------------  
  
Kurama held her gaze, hiding his shock at the answer. He was beginning to think that maybe all the times he'd seen this girl weren't merely coincidence after all. Wasn't there an old saying that said running across someone three times was fate, not coincidence? What number time was this? There was her jump over the street yesterday, and then again in the park, and now...that made three times!  
  
'Don't be stupid. That's just a silly superstition,' a voice in the back of his head scolded him for his irrational thoughts.   
  
Of course he had to agree. That was a ridiculous notion. How could he even consider it? Then again, this girl had been making him think a lot of strange things lately.   
  
"The book store? What a coincidence, that's were I was heading," he said, forcing a smile.   
  
----------------  
  
Kairi stared in wide-eyed shock. She wasn't sure she liked this anymore. Now she would almost certainly be forced to remain in his company once they reached the book store, simply out of courtesy. She wasn't good at this, socializing that is. She had always kept her distance from everyone. The truth was, Kuwabara wasn't her only friend because she couldn't make any other ones, it was because she didn't want any other ones. Friendship leads to closeness, and closeness leads to pain. That was all there was to it. Right?  
  
The bus pulled to a halt, the wheels squealing as the brakes dragged them to a stop. The sudden sound and absence of movement released Kairi from her thoughts and she blinked around her, wondering where they were.   
  
"This is our stop," Shuichi informed her, standing up.   
  
'Great,' she thought, also standing up.   
  
They stepped off the bus and into the rain that was now falling fast in large, icy drops. The both of them hurried to the door of the book store, trying to avoid becoming completely soaked. Shuichi reached the door first, and politely held it opened for Kairi. Kairi dashed inside and he quickly followed.   
  
The book store was all but empty. Most of the people that were sitting in the various chairs or at one of the numerous tables were simply waiting for the rain to cease. Kairi shook her head, sending a spray of water in every direction. She then proceeded to the text book section, hoping that Shuichi would go his separate way and that would be that.   
  
----------------  
  
Kurama stood in the book store's entrance, waiting to see where Kairi would go so he would know what section of the store to avoid. To be honest, he was just as anxious to part company with her as she was with him. She made him feel strange, new, and confusing things...and he wasn't entirely sure he liked it. She started off for the text book section, and Kurama breathed a sigh of relief. He had no reason to go over there. He was about to start out for the fiction section when a voice behind him stopped him.   
  
"Hey! Kurama! There you are. I've been looking all over for you!"  
  
Kurama turned to see a dripping Yusuke standing before him.   
  
"Yusuke?" Kurama asked, wondering why the rowdy spirit detective had been looking for him. Before he could say anything else, however, Yusuke grabbed him and steered him into a deserted area at the back of the store. Once he was sure they were alone, he turned back to Kurama.   
  
"Yusuke, what is it?" Kurama asked.   
  
"Botan found some more information about Nightmare," Yusuke explained in a whisper.   
  
"And?" Kurama prompted him to continue.   
  
"They think that Nightmare is going to capture their next victim soon. Like, 'by the end of the week' soon," Yusuke said.  
  
"Why do they think that?" Kurama wondered.  
  
"Botan said that they've been preparing their system to add new data, data that can only come from new experiments," Yusuke answered.   
  
"Anything else?" Kurama asked, wanting to be as prepaired as possible when these 'Nightmare demons' did show up.  
  
"Yeah, one more thing. All the demons working for Nightmare have a tattoo of a skull somewhere on them. That's all we know," Yusuke finished.   
  
"What are we planning to do then?" Kurama asked. Yusuke's plans were always...unique, and Kurama was curious to know what plan of action he had.  
  
"Well, for now, I think the only thing we can do is keep a good watch out for any suspicious activity. Hiei agreed to take the first patrol. To be honest though," Yusuke added, lowering his voice slightly, "I think he just wanted to do it so he'd have an excuse to decapitate the first demon he came across. This whole thing has got him all worked up for some reason. Any idea why?"  
  
Kurama shook his head. "None."  
  
Yusuke shrugged. "Oh well, it doesn't matter, I guess. Hey, by the way," now Yusuke let an evil grin spread across his face, "who was that girl you walked in with?"  
  
"Don't know her," Kurama said quickly...too quickly. Damn! Yusuke would know he was lying for sure.  
  
Yusuke laughed. "You sly dog...or should I say fox?"  
  
"Yusuke, I can assure you that-"   
  
"Nothing is going on? Yeah right!" Yusuke interrupted. "I saw the way you reacted when I mentioned her. Just admit it, you like her, don't you?"  
  
"No!" Kurama protested. He was getting fed up with being teased by everyone, especially considering that he wasn't even sure if they were right or not.   
  
Yusuke opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by a crash and a scream from the text book section. 


	6. Captured

Sorry I took forever to update. I had massive writers block for like all of my stories. I'll update the other ones soon as well. I'm so happy! Yesterday, May 31, was my birthday! Ya!!!! I'm finally 14!!! All of my friends are way older then me! (Well, all except my one friend, but he skipped a grade and is only 13, so he doesn't count.) Anyway, here's the next chapter...ENJOY!!! (I wish the quick/edit would give my smileys back.)  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Kurama and Yusuke raced for the text book section as another scream pierced the air. They didn't get more then halfway there, however, before a very pale and scared looking Kairi ran into Yusuke while running the other way. The two tumbled to the ground in a heap. Kairi immediately scrambled to her feet, looking fearfully back in the direction she had come from.  
  
"What's wrong?" Yusuke asked, getting up as well. Kairi shook her head, swallowing several times before finding her voice again.   
  
"Some...some THING attacked me!" she exclaimed in a shaky voice. Now Kurama and Yusuke both noticed the claw mark running down her left arm from the shoulder to the elbow. It was bleeding profusely, crimson droplets falling to the linoleum below. Before any of them could say anything else, the 'thing' that had attacked her came charging out of the stacks. It was an ugly, bird-looking creature with a single long, sharp claw at the tip of each gray wing. One of these claws was stained red with blood.   
  
"Kurama, get her out of here," Yusuke ordered, taking a step forward and raising his hand, powering up for his Spirit Gun.  
  
"Surely you don't think they're after HER, do you?" Kurama asked, somewhat hesitant to go anywhere with this girl that made him feel so awkward.  
  
"It attacked her didn't it? Who else would it be after?" Yusuke said over his shoulder. "Now GO!"   
  
Kurama turned and grabbed Kairi's hand, practically dragging her out of the store. She stumbled along behind him, obviously on the verge of a nervous break down. As they left, a bright blue-tinged light exploded from the book store, but Kurama took no notice and Kairi was still too shaken to be fully aware of anything going on around her. It was still raining outside, but again neither of them seemed to notice.  
  
Kurama lead her a few blocks away and finally stopped in an alley. He released his hold on her and walked slowly further into the dark alleyway, making sure it was free of new dangers. Kairi, who was now slowly beginning to regain some senses, leaned against the wall and watched him.   
  
"W-what was that thing? What did it want with me?" she asked quietly after a moment. Kurama wasn't sure how to answer, but as it turned out, he didn't have to. At that moment, Kairi was grabbed from behind by another demon, this one a bat with giant black wings and long, curving fangs. Kairi screamed and tried to wriggle herself free, but the bat had a tight hold on her.   
  
Kurama immediately took action. In mere seconds he had formed his Rose Whip and with one flick of his wrist, the demon's head rolled off and onto the pavement. Kairi gasped and forced herself free from the corpse's grasp. Now she turned to Kurama, but it wasn't in 'Thanks,' it was in 'Fear.' She backed slowly from him, here eyes wide with fear.  
  
"Kairi," Kurama said, noticing her reaction, "I won't hurt you. I promise." Kairi didn't answer, just continued to stare.  
  
"Come out, come out, where ever you are. Where are you girl?" a clearly demon voice called down the damp, empty street the alley faced.   
  
"Come on," Kurama instructed, taking her arm again and pulling her into the abandoned building to the right of the alley.  
  
-----------------------------------------------  
  
Sazume sighed and stared at the rain droplets beating against the glass. She had decided to stay at the school and wait out the rain since she didn't have an umbrella. But now it didn't show any sign that it would stop anytime soon. She sighed again and decided that umbrella or not, it was time to go home.   
  
She stepped out into the cold rain, shivering as she walked home. As she passed the park, she noticed several figures coming towards her. She thought it was strange anyone would be in the park when it was raining, but she didn't dwell on the thought long. But then something dropped in front of her. A canister of some kind. It began to spew white smoke and she felt light headed and dizzy. Before she had time to think or react, she found her world consumed by black and she fell to the ground and knew no more.   
  
-----------------------------------------------  
  
Hiei had spent the last hour or so flitting from branch to branch in almost every tree in the city, just looking for a demon who he could decapitate. As he passed the park for the third time, he noticed a group of demons huddled around something. He smirked to himself and unsheathed his katana.   
  
He appeared among them and began slashing before any of them could realize what was happening. Two of them got away, carrying something between them, but he'd hunt them down later. At the moment, he was content with this group of misfits. It wasn't long, however, before he noticed a gray blur in the air. And there it was again! What was it?  
  
The blur appeared a third time and two demons fell dead before Hiei even touched them. Now he was certain, the blur was another demon. He smiled to himself. This would be an interesting fight.   
  
He flung himself at the blur, matching it's speed and becoming a black smear as well. The two blurs, one gray and one black, had a short, but interesting fight, if anyone had seen it. The two blurs would come together for a moment, then jump apart again, then together again as the two demons attacked, countered, and attacked again. Ready to end this, Hiei prepaired for his finally blow.   
  
His eyes widened in shock at the last moment and he stopped his blade inches from his attacker's nose. The opposing demon did the same with it's black sword, letting it hover centimeters from Hiei's face. Wait, not 'it', 'HER!' The demon was a girl! She was maybe an inch taller then Hiei with a long brown braid of hair that snaked down her back. Two gray wolf ears were perched on her head and a long, gray wolf's tail swished behind her. Hiei stared at her, and she stared right back.   
  
"YOU!" they both exclaimed at the same time.  
  
-----------------------------------------------  
  
Kurama had lead Kairi up two flights of stairs until they were on the third floor of the building. He then raced into the nearest room. The floor creaked dangerously under them and dust coated everything. He turned to the closet, but Kairi stopped, staring in fear.   
  
"I tire of this girl!" the demon's voice called from downstairs.   
  
"Come on!" Kurama hissed, but Kairi shook her head, still staring fearfully at the closet. Kurama didn't know why she was so scared, and he didn't have time to ask. He pulled her into the closet, closing the door behind them. The door wouldn't close all the way, however and it left a sliver of light leaking into the dark space.   
  
"Girl! I know you're in here! I can smell you!" the demon declared, stepping into the room. It looked like a giant black panther. Kairi squeezed her eyes shut in fear, but not of the demon. She was pretending, wishing that she was anywhere but in this closet. Kurama wondered at her behavior, but as long as she was quiet it didn't matter what she did. The demon took a sniff of the air and turned towards the closet.   
  
"There you are," he said, stepping towards the closed door. Kurama realized that if the demon cornered them in the closet, there would be no escape. He readied his whip and waited until the demon was two steps from the door, then he sprang. The whip created a deep gash in the demon's chest and it stumbled back, crying out in surprise and pain.   
  
"Run!" Kurama called over his shoulder to Kairi. She didn't move.  
  
"GO!" Kurama yelled, turning to face her. Kairi stared for a moment, then she ran.   
  
Kurama turned back to the demon, listening to Kairi's footsteps as she raced down the stairs.  
  
"You bast-" the demon began, but he didn't finish because Kurama sliced him in half with his whip. The only reason he hadn't done that in the first place was because Kairi had been watching and he remembered her reaction the first time he used his whip in front of her.   
  
He took one last look at the mess that used to be the black panther demon, then he hurried from the room to catch up with Kairi.   
  
-----------------------------------------------  
  
Kairi ran for all she was worth. She didn't know where she was. She was so disoriented with fear she didn't even know how long she had been running. It felt like days...years...her whole life. She chanced a glance over her shoulder, wondering if she was being followed. Then she felt herself hit something hard.   
  
She looked up to find she had run into a tall demon who's features were hidden by a long cloak. She screamed but the sound was muffled as the demon grabbed her and pressed a white rag to her mouth. Kairi struggled, but then she began to feel sleepy. She tried to fight it, but to no avail. The world blurred before her, spinning crazily, and she fell forward and lost consciousness. 


	7. The Survivor and Demonic Fusion

I can write one more chapter and then I'm going to have to stop for a bit while my grandparents are here. Just until next Sunday. I hope this can suffice until then. Now...ON WITH THE FIC!  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Kurama had been running for nearly ten minutes now, searching for Kairi in vain. He was drenched, but kept going, hoping against hope he wasn't to late. He was near the park now. Several figures came into view in the distance. As he drew closer, he recognized one as Hiei. Another was a wolf demon of some kind and the rest were a group of dead demons, laying on the grass.   
  
"What happened?" Kurama asked when he reached them, sensing that a fight had taken place.   
  
"Nightmare's demons," Hiei said, gesturing towards one demon who was still living with a skull tattoo on it's forehead. "This one got caught in his own sleeping gas."  
  
"What were they doing here?" Kurama asked.  
  
"They caught some girl and carried her off," Hiei answered. Kurama felt sick.   
  
"What did she look like?" he asked, afraid of the answer.  
  
"I didn't see her up close. Blond hair, short." Hiei said, not paying attention to Kurama's reactions. Kurama sighed slightly. If she was short, then it must have been Sazume and not Kairi. But if they got Sazume, then maybe...  
  
"You shouldn't concern yourself with her. She'll be dead before the end of the day," a voice cut into Kurama's thoughts. He looked up to find the wolf demon staring at him. 'It' was a 'she!' She had cold, gray eyes with gray wolf ears and an equally gray wolf tail. Her brown hair was pulled back in a long braid trailing down her back, swinging freely from a metal cylinder an inch and a half long that was perched on the back of her head.   
  
"And who are you?" Kurama asked.  
  
She smirked slightly. "My name is Akira. Since you know about Nightmare, you may have heard of me. I'm the one who survived the Demonic Fusion."  
  
Kurama's eyes widened in surprise. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I have a... 'hobby' of hunting these demons that work for Nightmare," she said, glaring at the bodies around her. "I saw a few others before. One, tall in a black robe, carrying a girl similar to the one Hiei saw, except she was taller," Akira added.   
  
"Kairi," Kurama breathed. He felt as if heart had just frozen into a block of ice. They had Kairi! And if what Akira had said before was true, and if Nightmare lived up to it's reputation of killing its victims, then Kairi...  
  
"You know this girl?" Hiei asked. Kurama stared at the wet grass for a moment, then nodded slowly.  
  
"Yes. Her name is Kairi, and the other girl you saw was her younger sister, Sazume," Kurama said quietly. He had this horrible guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had failed. He had tried to protect Kairi, but he had failed. And now she and her sister might have to pay the ultimate price because of it.  
  
"Tell me," Kurama said, looking up at Akira, "what are the odds of Kairi or Sazume surviving this? Is there any chance at all?"  
  
"It depends," Akira answered quietly. Her voice had lost its edge and the hard look her eyes held had softened. "They must have incredibly strong spirits and an equally strong will to live to survive the Spiritual Fusion. And even then, they still might die during the Genetic Fusion."   
  
Kurama looked down at the grass again. He remembered Kairi's jump over the street and what Kuwabara had told him about her past. Maybe she had jumped because she didn't care about her well-being, because her mother's death had forced her to lose her will to live. But if that was true, then her chances of surviving the Spiritual Fusion were slim to none.  
  
"The Demonic Fusion puts extreme pressures on the spirit and the body," Akira continued. "I won't lie. It's the most horrific torture anyone could go through." There was a shadow of pain in her eyes as she spoke and she lowered her gaze to the sleeping demon on the ground. "Sleeping Beauty here should know where Nightmare's base is hidden. If he wakes up soon, we might be able to get there fast and stop the fusion from taking place, but he's been drugged by the sleeping gas, like Hiei said, and we can't wake him. All we can do is pray that he wakes up before it's too late. And if not..." she sighed heavily and looked up at Kurama, "then I hope your friends are up to the challenge of enduring the Demonic Fusion." As she spoke, the demon on the ground groaned, the effects of the sleeping gas beginning to wear off.   
  
"Well speak of the devil," Akira smiled as she stared down at the demon, the harsh, cold look returning to her gray eyes. "We might have our answers sooner then I would have hoped."  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Sazume slowly opened her eyes. She still felt groggy from the sleeping gas she had inhaled. Slowly, the room came into focus. She was lying on a cold, metal table. She could feel the freezing metal binds that held her on the table by her wrists and ankles. There was a blinding light above her, pointed directly at her face.   
  
She turned her head to one side to keep the light out of her eyes and caught sight of a demon standing a few feet away. The demon had a doctor's coat with rubber gloves and a mask on. He had his back to her and was fiddling with something on a table in front of him.  
  
"Ah, you're awake," he said, turning to face her. He had something in his hand, but Sazume's vision hadn't cleared enough for her to see what.  
  
"Whe..." Sazume tried to ask, but her mind seemed disconnected from her mouth. She concentrated hard and tried again.  
  
"Where...am...I?" she managed to mumble.  
  
"Sorry, that's classified," the demon doctor said mockingly. He placed the something in his hand over her mouth. It looked like a large glass jar with a plastic mask at the opening.  
  
"Now just relax and breathe deeply," he said in a completely fake soothing voice. Sazume's mind was still clouded and by the time she realized just how dangerous it would be to obey the demon, she had already taken a breath. Something smoky, with the feeling of something alive, left the clear jar and entered her mouth, swimming down her throat and into her body.  
  
"Good," the demon doctor said, removing the mask of the jar from Sazume's face.   
  
"Now this may sting a bit at first," he said, "but that should go away once the searing pain kicks in." With that, the demon turned back to the table he had been working at before.   
  
Sazume had just comprehended what he had said, and was about to ask what he meant, when a sharp pain went through her chest. Sazume moaned and tried to twist free of the metal binds holding her to the table. The pain grew worse with each passing second. She shut her eyes as tight as she could and bit her lip so hard that blood dripped down her chin. Then, the pain escalated to a point beyond what Sazume would have thought possible. Her eyes shot open again and she screamed louder then she had in her entire life.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Kairi slowly, very slowly, drifted back into consciousness. She thought she heard a scream, but her head hurt too much for her to care. She cracked one eye open. A blinding light made her shut it again immediately. The pain in her head got ten times worse and she groaned in pain. Kairi tried to sit up, but something cold and smooth held her wrists and ankles down.  
  
"Now, now. Relax," someone said from somewhere above her and to the right. Kairi opened her eyes again, slowly, letting them adjust to the light. Ignoring the pain in her head as much as she could, she tried hard to focus on the room. Someone in a white coat and wearing a doctor's mask was standing by the table she was laying on. He had something in his hand, but she couldn't see what. Was he a doctor? No. He was one of those horrible creatures that had been chasing her dressed up like a doctor. Kairi turned her head, and immediately regretted it.   
  
"My head..." she moaned, shutting her eyes against the pain.   
  
"Our sleeping chemicals do that sometimes. Dreadfully sorry," the fake doctor said. He placed something over her mouth.  
  
"Now be a good girl and take a deep breath," he instructed. Alarms went off in Kairi's throbbing head.  
  
'If he wants me to take a breath, then that's exactly what I can't do!' she thought. Kairi instantly began to hold her breath.  
  
"Tsk, tsk," the demon doctor clicked his tongue, waging his finger at her. "You're only delaying the inevitable. You can't hold your breath forever."  
  
'Watch me!' Kairi though, but she knew he was right, she'd have to breathe sometime. Finally, she could hold it no longer and had to take a breath. As she breathed in, she felt something smoky and somehow living go down her throat. Smoke couldn't be alive! Could it? So many strange things had happened already today that Kairi honestly wasn't sure.  
  
"Now I won't lie, this isn't going to be a walk in the park. Feel free to scream, I have earplugs," the fake doctor said, taking a step back from the table Kairi was strapped to.   
  
"What?" Kairi asked, but at that moment, she got her answer. A pain that rivaled the pain in her head shot through her body. Starting at her chest, her heart, and expanding outwards to the tips of her fingers and toes. Then it got worse...and worse...and worse...and worse! A high scream escaped Kairi's lips. It was like some wild animal had somehow gotten inside of her and was ripping her apart from the inside. The pain kept escalating until tears ran down her cheeks.   
  
"I think this one might survive," Kairi was barely aware of a new voice saying from somewhere to her left. "We should administer the Genetic Fusion before the spirits are completely joined."  
  
"Alright," the fake doctor from before said. Kairi was just able to make out his form standing above her once more.   
  
"Relax. This will all be over soon," he said as he placed another mask over her mouth. This time, Kairi knew what it was. It was an anesthesia mask. As the gas flowed into Kairi's lungs, she began to feel sleepy. But the pain refused to leave her body, and she drifted off to sleep knowing that even her dreams would be filled with unspeakable pain and suffering. 


	8. Search and Rescue

Hello again. Sorry for the delay. I had a bit of writer's block. Originally, Kitsune no Kami and I had this story and the one after it written down in a notebook that we passed back and forth over the school year, but I've changed a lot of the story line, so I wasn't sure how to continue. But I think I've got it now. I've kept you in suspense enough, so...ON WITH THE FIC!!! (Usually, I put some witty remark about my terminated smiley here, but I'm saving all those for my Prisoners fic, so...yeah.)  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
It had taken nearly half an hour to get the information they wanted out of the demon who had fallen victim to his own sleeping gas. Yusuke and Kuwabara had arrived on the scene shortly after the demon came to, and Hiei and Akira began questioning him. The questioning, however, consisted more of punches and threats then actual asking and answering of questions. Eventually, though, they did manage to find out where Nightmare's current base was.   
  
Nightmare, they learned, had set up its base of operations in an old, burnt out building on the edge of town. After relaying the information to Botan via Communication Mirror, they learned that the building was once a hospital that had experienced a bad fire. After the fire, a big business tycoon bought the building from the city and it appeared to have remained abandoned ever since. Appearances, however, can be deceiving.   
  
Now, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, Akira, and Kurama were running at top speed for the building, praying that the delay they experienced while questioning the demon wouldn't make them too late. Well, to be fair, only Yusuke, Kurama, and Kuwabara were running. Akira and Hiei seemed to be engaged in a race ahead of the others; Akira soaring through the air like a jet and Hiei close behind, if not tied with her, jumping from branches and street lights and anything else around. The others had been impressed by Akira's flying skills. They had all wondered what she could do, but none of them thought it would have anything to do with wind. They hadn't encountered a friendly windmaster since Jin, but then, maybe 'friendly' didn't describe Akira very well after all.   
  
It wasn't long before a building came into view between the trees. Akira landed first, followed a split second later by Hiei, who glared at the girl that had beaten him while she smiled back. Yusuke and the others were soon in the clearing as well.   
  
"Is this it?" Yusuke asked.   
  
"Yes, this is it," Akira confirmed. They all stared up at the building. It was dark and the outside was blackened, obvious signs that a fire had taken place. Despite this, most of the building appeared intact. The large doors were unguarded, a fact that made them all feel wary and cautious. The rain had cleared up, but the sky was still dark and gloomy. Hiei slowly opened one of the doors as lighting cracked overhead. There was a soft glow of light from inside and they all stepped into it, letting the door close behind them.   
  
Kurama tightened his fists as that guilty feeling returned once again. He strained to see into the dimly lit passage they were standing in, all the wile hoping silently that they weren't too late. The hallway was long, so long in fact that they couldn't see the end. They began to walk down the hallway, keeping a sharp eye out for guards. They passed several doors, and they paused to glance in the small window set in each of them, but they found no sign of Kairi or Sazume. Once, a demon in doctor's garb walked out of a door ahead of them, stopping when he spotted them. But Hiei had bolted into action and killed the demon before it could utter a sound, and they continued with their search.   
  
Suddenly, a few doors after the demon Hiei had killed, Kuwabara shivered and gave a small yelp.   
  
"Quiet!" Akira hissed, glancing down the hall to make sure no one had heard.   
  
Kuwabara had put both hands over his mouth once he had realized his mistake in uttering a sound. Now he put them down.   
  
"Sorry," he whispered. "It's just that, well, people died in this fire, you know. I've had the tickle feeling ever since we came in here and just then, I think a ghost must have passed through me or something."  
  
"Fine, but be quiet about it," Akira said quietly, rolling her eyes and turning around. But, as she was about to start walking again, she turned back to Kuwabara with a raised eyebrow.   
  
"The 'tickle feeling?'" she asked, but before he could answer, she shook her head and turned around again, muttering "Never mind. Don't answer that."  
  
They continued down the hall and when they reached what Akira guessed to be the halfway point, they began to hear voices. Following the sound, they came to a door that, for once, did not lead to an empty room. Peering though the window, they could see Sazume strapped to a metal table, unconscious but still moaning now and then. Nearby, two demons in doctor's clothes were arguing with one another. Kuwabara gritted his teeth and growled, reaching for the doorknob. Akira put out a hand, grabbing his wrist to stop him.   
  
"Wait," she whispered, "listen to what they're saying." They all fell silent, concentrating on the conversation the demons were having.   
  
"I'm not sure, it's too early to tell," one of them was saying.   
  
"Well, at least there's no Genetic Fusion involved in this case. If she can just hold on, she'll be fine," the second one replied.   
  
"Yes, but as I just said, I'm not sure if she can. We have no data on this, we don't know what to expect," the first one said.   
  
"Oh, all you every worry about is data this and data that! Live a little!" the second one argued.   
  
"I still think we should have stuck with the usual procedure, changing the variables could only make it harder to understand how this works!" the first one yelled.   
  
"The usual procedures! Open your eyes, will ya?! Your precious usual procedures have killed every test subject since 1919! Face it, it's time for a change!" the second one countered. Akira had apparently heard enough, because she flung open the door and stepped into the room.   
  
"Hello boys. Remember me?" she asked in a menacing voice. As she spoke, the long, black leather glove running along her right arm morphed into a long, black katana. She blurred from view and reappeared behind the two demons who had been arguing a moment before. She gave her newly-formed sword a quick slice and both their heads rolled to the floor, the bodies teetering and then falling to the ground. She smiled slightly and the black katana became a glove once more.   
  
Akira bent and retrieved a ring of keys from the belt of one of the demon's fallen bodies. After a few tries, she found the right key to unlock Sazume's binds and freed the moaning, shivering girl. Kurama and Kuwabara shifted uncomfortably, not liking the sight they now beheld of the girl who had just yesterday been laughing in the park with them. Kurama approached the table and gently placed a hand on her sweating forehead. He almost immediately pulled his hand back.   
  
"Her temperature...it must be 120, at least," he muttered in astonishment, wondering why it hadn't killed her.   
  
"That's relatively normal for this stage in the fusion, even more so for her," Akira said from behind them. They turned to see her staring up at a computer screen that was displaying all of Sazume's data.   
  
"What do you mean?" Kurama asked.   
  
"Well, most fusions are done with animal spirits. For some reason, they're more compatible with humans. Which," she added, side glancing at Kurama, "might explain how you pulled off your little stunt to cheat death."  
  
"What's different about Sazume?" Yusuke asked. Akira sighed and turned back to the monitor.   
  
"It seems," she said, "that Sazume was fused with a fire demon, not an animal spirit. That may explain the temperature and how she can stand it. I'm afraid that there isn't much we can do for her now. Whether she lives or dies in entirely up to her. One of you should take her some place safe."  
  
"I'll take her to Genkai's," Yusuke volunteered, gently picking up Sazume's limp body. She moaned, but did not wake up. They followed Yusuke out into the hall, watching him until he disappeared into the darkness and even continuing to linger in the dark passageway until they saw the faint light that signaled that the door had been opened. Once they had seen the light disappear as the door closed, they continued down the hall in search of Kairi.   
  
They checked every door, as they had done before. Empty. Every room, empty. They could see the end of the hallway now and were beginning to worry. What if Kairi had died and they had destroyed her body? What if she had survived and been taken somewhere else. What ifs ran through everyone's head, especially Kurama's. There weren't many rooms left and he was beginning to get scared. What would he do if something had happened and they didn't find her? He wasn't sure.   
  
Then, when he had about given up all hope, Kurama saw her through the window of a doorway. He threw open the door and called to the others, who followed him inside. Kairi was lying on the table, locked to it in the same way that Sazume had been. Akira had kept the ring of keys, and she soon had the binds unlocked and removed. Kairi did not look like she was in good shape. Her breathing was ragged and shallow, much more labored then Sazume's had been, and she had bandages wrapped around her hands. Two black cat ears were perched on top of her head, blood matting the hair around them down. And she had a back tail as well, hanging limply off the side of the table.   
  
"Kairi..." Kurama whispered, but it was Kuwabara that rushed to her side, calling out his friend's name. Kurama placed his hand on Kairi's forehead as he had done with Sazume, and was relieved to find that she had a fever, but it wasn't anywhere near as life-threatening as Sazume's had been. Kairi moaned slightly at his touch, her limp tail giving a feeble twitch.   
  
"This isn't good..." Akira mumbled from behind them. She was once again viewing the monitor.   
  
"What?" Kurama asked, hard put to mask the fear in his voice.   
  
"Nothing," Akira said, shaking her head and turning the computer off. "It's nothing we can do anything about, in any case. We need to get her out of here, take her to this 'Genkai's' place." Kurama nodded and picked Kairi up, careful to be as gentle as possible. She moaned again, but did nothing else. As they picked their way back through the building and headed for Genkai's, they could do nothing but hope that Kairi would be alright. 


	9. Dangerous Memories

Genkai sat with Yusuke and the others in her temple. Yukina and Botan were trying their best to make Sazume and Kairi comfortable in another room, but so far, their efforts didn't seem to have any effect.   
  
For the moment, there was silence among the group. Genkai silently sipped her tea while Yusuke kept throwing uneasy glances at Akira, who he didn't seem to trust at all. Akira was meditating, or something like it, sitting perfectly still with her eyes closed while Hiei watched her from his spot leaning against the wall in the corner. Kuwabara was fidgety and nervous, constantly looking back at the door as he wished he could leave and be by Yukina's side. Kurama was silently staring at the floor. He hadn't said anything since they had brought Kairi to the temple and was lost deep in thought at the moment. That is why everyone was mildly surprised when he spoke first.   
  
"Akira," he said, looking up at her, "you seemed worried about something when you looked at Kairi's data on the computer in Nightmare's lab. What were you concerned about?"  
  
Akira sighed. "It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't understand all aspects of the fusion. In fact, I'm not even sure if it really is a problem. But, in any case, I'm sure Koenma will be able to explain everything when he gets here."  
  
"Pacifier breath is coming?" Yusuke asked, looking up.   
  
"Yes," Genkai informed them as she set her cup down. "I contacted him shortly after you got here."  
  
"But that was a half hour ago! What the hell's taking him so long?!" Yusuke cried.   
  
"Hey! You think it's easy putting everything on hold so I can come chit-chat with you?!" a teenage Koenma barked from behind Yusuke, making the Spirit Detective jump five feet in the air.   
  
"Don't do that!" Yusuke yelled, once he had regained his footing. Koenma only smiled.   
  
"Sit down Dimwit!" Genkai ordered. Yusuke turned to her, looking like he was about to say something.   
  
"We don't have time for you to stand there arguing," Akira said before he had a chance to say whatever he had been planning to. "If I'm right, we have very little time at all. So sit down and shut up!" Yusuke glanced at her, but caught the dangerous look in her steely eyes and thought better of saying anything. Instead, he sat down.   
  
"What do you mean 'very little time at all?' What's wrong?" Kuwabara asked.   
  
"It's complicated," Koenma said with a sigh. The others were quite, so he continued. "You see, when Nightmare captures a demon they are going to use for the Demonic Fusion, they knock the demon out so it doesn't remember it's death."   
  
"Why does that matter?" Yusuke asked.   
  
"Well...it's like dreaming. You can't die in a dream because if you did, your body would think that you had really died and shut down. The same is true for a human fused with a demon who remembers its death. Once fused, the human has all of the demon's memories. If the human were to remember their demon counterpart's death, it would be like dying in a dream. Their bodies would believe they had died and they would die," Koenma explained.   
  
"But I remember my death," Yusuke said.   
  
"Idiot," Hiei grunted. "Your body died, so the memory isn't a problem. But a fused human's body has most likely never died, and the memory of death would kill them."  
  
"What does that have to do with Kairi?" Kuwabara asked, afraid that he already knew the answer.   
  
"We did some research on the demon Kairi was fused with. Her name was Sanga, and she wasn't sedated when she died. She remembers her death," Koenma said solemnly. There was silence in the room for a moment.   
  
"I know," Yusuke said, breaking the silence. "Why don't you let her die and then bring her back. Then her body will have died and it wont be a problem."   
  
"Stupid, you can't do that!" Akira cried, standing up.   
  
"Why not?" Yusuke asked.   
  
"Listen," Akira said, "Kairi's body is the only thing keeping those spirits fused. If her body dies and the spirits are released, their become two separate entities again and go their separate ways. You'd have to find them both before you could bring her back, because her body has now adapted to house both spirits and wont function properly with one and not the other. And besides all that, even if you could find both spirits, they'd have to be fused again, and there isn't a being in any of the worlds that can take two fusions. Most likely, the souls would simply rip each other apart."   
  
"I assume you already have something in mind," Genkai said calmly, eyeing Koenma.   
  
"Yes, in fact, I do. Where is Kairi now?" Koenma answered.   
  
"Follow me!" Kuwabara declared as he jumped up, overjoyed at an excuse to see Yukina. Kuwabara lead them to the door of the room Kairi was sleeping in and slid the door opened. Inside, Kairi was lying on a futon while Yukina bent over her, laying a cold cloth on her head. Kairi did not look in good shape. She was pale and covered in sweat and her breathing was ragged and almost painful to listen to.   
  
"Yukina! How are you doing, my love?" Kuwabara cried.   
  
"She's not the one we're worried about!" Akira cried irritably, giving Kuwabara a good punch to the back of the head that caused him to stumble half-conscious to the ground.   
  
"Kazuma!" Yukina cried as she turned her attention to the hurt, love-sick boy who was now couching on the floor.   
  
"Are you alright?" she asked as she began to heal the bump on his head.   
  
"Don't answer that!" Akira warned as Kuwabara opened his mouth. He promptly shut it.   
  
"What exactly are you planning to do?" Kurama asked Koenma as the toddler in teenage form knelt by Kairi's side.   
  
"Seal her memories," Koenma explained as he placed his hands, palms down, over Kairi's head.   
  
"But, doesn't she need to know who she is and stuff?" Yusuke asked.   
  
"I'm not sealing all of them," Koenma said, as golden light began to flow from his hands, "just Sanga's memories. Oh, and as a bonus, I think she could do without a certain childhood trauma for a while as well."   
  
"You mean when her mom died?" Kuwabara asked, Yukina having finished healing his head. Koenma only nodded. As they watched, the golden light thinned and became a thread. The thread circled Kairi's head, brushing against skin or hair now and again. Then, the threads began to come together near her left ear. They twisted together, forming a gold chain and attached itself to the black fur of her new cat ear. The light faded and Kairi was left with a gold chain earring that ran the length of her ear, attached by two gold studs on each end, one near the base of her ear and the other at the top.   
  
"That must never be removed or broken," Koenma said, standing up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some very important business to get back to. I only have fifteen minutes to get back before 'Friends' starts." And with that, Koenma disappeared in a cloud of smoke.   
  
-()-()-()  
  
It wasn't until several days later that Kairi became aware of herself again. She was silent, staring at the inside of her eyelids and wondering if she had the strength to open them. Slowly, she cracked one opened. Dark. She opened the other eye and blinked them both several times as she took in her surroundings. She was alone in a plain room, lying on a futon.   
  
She tried to sit up and was forced to bite back a cry as pain exploded from virtually every part of her body. After a few more minutes of pain, gritted teeth, and suppressed cries, she was finally able to reach a sitting position. As she looked around her, she noticed something long and black curling by one of her legs. She reached out a bandaged hand and picked it up. It felt bony and alive, like it was part of something else. Wondering where it had come from, she gave it a tug, and yelped in pain.   
  
She was quiet for a moment, not wanting to believe what she suspected was true about this black thing. Slowly, she turned around and glanced down, gasping as her suspicions were conformed. This thing was coming from her! It was a...a...tail! She forced herself to take deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. How was this possible? Was it a dream? But then, why was it so painful when she pulled on it? No, it wasn't a dream. But it couldn't be real, could it?  
  
It was extremely painful, but somehow she managed to stand. She could feel her legs threatening to give out and they ached with each step, but she had to know for sure. She had to find a mirror or something, see what had happened to her and, if possible, find a way to convince herself it was a dream.   
  
She stumbled to the door, forced to lean heavily against it once she reached it. She pushed it opened. All was dark outside and stars shined brightly above her. She seemed to be at a temple. Slowly, she started to walk alone the building's side, leaning against the wall for support. As she neared the corner, someone came around it and almost ran into her.   
  
"Kairi!" the person cried, and Kairi was relieved to see that it was Sazume.   
  
"Sazume..." Kairi gasped as her sister took her arm to steady her.   
  
"What are you doing out here? You should be in bed!" Sazume cried.   
  
Kairi shook her head. "No, I have...to know. What happened...to me?" Sazume stared at her for a moment.   
  
"Are you sure you're up to it? It may come as a bit of a shock," she said.   
  
"I'm sure," Kairi assured her.   
  
"Stay here, I'll be right back," Sazume said, helping her sister to sit down with her back against the wall. Sazume then dashed around the corner and returned some minutes later with a mirror.   
  
"You're sure now?" Sazume asked again, hesitating to give Kairi the mirror.   
  
"I already know I have a tail, how much worse could it be?" Kairi answered, taking the mirror. Apparently, it could be a lot worse. Kairi nearly dropped the mirror as she stared at what she prayed wasn't her reflection. Her bright blue eyes had been replaced with a turquoise, greenish-blue color that held thin, cat-like slits for pupils. Two black cat ears were perched atop her head, the left one with a strange, golden chain earring on it. Her hair had changed as well. Yukina had washed the blood from her flaxen hair to reveal a strange, lopsided 'W' shape. The pattern was made of three, white diamonds that came together at a tip in the center of her bangs. The two outer sides were smaller and ran to the base of each ear while the middle diamond was longer and ran the length of the top of her head.   
  
"What...what happened?" Kairi asked in a shaky voice. Sazume sighed.   
  
"Come on, it's a long story. I'll explain inside," she said as she took her sister's arm once more and helped her back to her room.   
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Don't you all hate my cliffies? Oh well, I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Review, review, REVIEW...please. 


	10. Long Talks

Neither Kairi or Sazume were sure what time Sazume had started her explanation of the events of the last few days, but the early light of dawn shone through the cracks around the door when they had finished. Kairi sat in silence for a long time, her tail flicking to and fro behind her as she thought.   
  
"You don't have a tail or anything," she said to Sazume at length.   
  
"I told you, I was fused with a fire demon, not an animal spirit. Fire demons look human. You'll see what I mean when you meet Hiei," Sazume explained.   
  
"Right...and Shuichi is a demon too?" Kairi asked after another silence. Sazume had explained all about the legendary thief turned human nearly three times now, but Kairi found it harder to believe then the fact that she had turned into a cat.   
  
"I already told you about that too," Sazume said with and exasperated sigh.   
  
"I know you did, sorry," Kairi murmured. Then she added, "I'm hungry."   
  
"Well, you were asleep for four days," Sazume said, standing up.   
  
"I meant to ask you, what did you tell Mai?" Kairi asked as she too stood. She was feeling a little better and could at least walk now, but she was still achy and stiff.   
  
"Kuwabara told her that the college was having a week-long field trip and so was my school," Sazume answered as she slid open the door to find the short ice apparition Yukina standing there with two bowls of rice.   
  
"I'm glad to see you're awake. I thought you might be hungry," she said politely as she handed the bowls to the girls in front of her.   
  
"Thanks. You read my mind. It's Yukina, right?" Kairi said, taking a bowl and trying to keep strait all the names and people Sazume had told her about.   
  
"Yes, that's right," Yukina said with a smile. "If you need anything else, just let me know." With that, she turned and walked back down the temple's wooden porch and around the corner.   
  
Kairi and Sazume sat back down to eat and were silent for a good ten minutes. Finally, however, Sazume broke the silence to ask something that had been bothering her for a few days.   
  
"Kairi?" she asked hesitantly.   
  
"Hmm?" Her sister replied threw a mouthful of rice.   
  
"Do you remember anything about Mom?" Sazume had been told about the seal on Kairi's ear and had even explained about it to Kairi. But in her explanation, she had neglected to mention how it blocked her sister's memory of their mother's death and had simply said that it locked Sanga's memories away. Now, she wanted to know if it really had sealed that one dreadful memory. It certainly seemed to have. Kairi was much more happy and talkative then usual, but Sazume still had to find out for sure.   
  
"Mom? I don't know...um..." Kairi said once she had swallowed her rice. She tapped her chopsticks against her chin in thought and her tail swished behind her once more.   
  
"Well...I remember the locket," she said finally, running her fingers over the tarnished silver pendent that she always wore. "And I remember the funeral," she added after a moment.   
  
"Nothing about how she died?" Sazume asked hopefully.   
  
Kairi was silent again thinking, then she shook her head. "No. Why do you ask?"   
  
"No reason," Sazume lied, smiling to herself as she looked down at her bowl and continued to eat. Kairi stared at her sister in curiosity, but didn't say anything more.   
  
-()-()-()  
  
It was late in the afternoon when Kurama climbed the steps to Genkai's temple. He had been coming here after work everyday since Kairi's memories had been sealed. He still felt responsible for what happened to her and knew he wouldn't find peace until she woke up and he knew for certain that she was going to be alright.   
  
As he reached the top and the temple came into view, he was surprised to see the door that lead to Kairi's room was opened. He sped up slightly and was soon at the door, looking in to find that Yukina was the only occupant of the room.   
  
"What happened to Kairi?" he asked, afraid of what horrible answer he might receive.   
  
"Oh, hello Kurama. She woke up this morning and she and Sazume took a walk a short time ago. She should be around her somewhere," Yukina answered politely. She had been in the room to retrieve Sazume and Kairi's breakfast bowls, which she now held in her hands.   
  
"Thank you Yukina," Kurama said politely, smiling as he left her to find the missing sisters. He walked around the side of the temple, but stopped as he sensed a familiar presence in a nearby tree.   
  
"If she ever catches you, she'll think you're a stalker," Kurama said calmly as Hiei appeared next to him, having jumped from the branch he had been watching Yukina from.   
  
"Hn," was all he said as he continued to watch Yukina as she rounded the corner on the opposite side of the temple.   
  
"You haven't seen Kairi, have you?" Kurama asked as his short companion shifted his crimson gaze from Yukina's retreating form to him.   
  
"What is your obsession with this girl?" Hiei asked.   
  
"No more then your obsession with Yukina," Kurama teased.   
  
"It's not the same thing and you know it," Hiei huffed.   
  
"Alright then, how about your obsession with Akira," Kurama answered, noting Hiei's reaction. The shorter demon visibly stiffened.   
  
"I am not obsessed with that girl!" Hiei growled. Kurama only smiled. He had hit a sensitive chord.  
  
"You're always staring at her," he pointed out. Hiei looked liked he was about to kill the former Makai thief, but Kurama new that for all his teasing, he was safe from the short tempered fire demon's wrath.   
  
"Have you seen her?" Kurama asked his original question again.   
  
"She and her sister are by the lake," Hiei grunted before becoming a blur and then disappearing altogether. Kurama smiled again and headed into the woods surrounding the temple. Sure enough, when he reached the lake, Kairi and Sazume were sitting by it. Sazume was watching the clouds overhead while Kairi stared down at her reflection in the water.   
  
"How are you feeling?" Kurama asked as he approached the pair. They both turned to look at him, causing him to pause for a moment in shock. Kairi's eyes...they were so different. True, they were a different color then before, but that wasn't what caught Kurama's eye. They were so clear and welcoming, completely different from the dull ones he had seen the bus before. The seal must have worked as Koenma had said it would. It was amazing how the removal of one memory could change someone so dramatically.   
  
"I still feel a little achy, but I'm alright Shu-I mean Kurama," she smiled at him. Kurama wondered how she had known his true name wasn't Shuichi. When she caught his questioning stare, she said, "Sazume explained everything to me."  
  
"Oh," was all Kurama found to say. Sazume looked from Kairi to Kurama and back again, then she smiled, remembering Kuwabara's teasing words at the park.   
  
"I think I'll head back now," she said, standing up, "I'll see you back at the temple."  
  
"Um...alright," Kairi said, startled by her sister's sudden proposal to leave. She watched Sazume disappear through the trees before turning back to Kurama.   
  
"You can sit down you know," she said after a moment, gesturing to the space next to her on the large rock she was sitting on. Kurama smiled and excepted the offer, taking a seat next to her. There was an awkward silence for a few moments, or at least, it was awkward for Kurama. Kairi didn't seem to notice. She was too busy watching the fish in the lake.   
  
"Kairi?" he asked when he could take the silence no more.   
  
"Hmm?" she asked, turning to him with those bright, sparkling eyes once more. He hesitated for a moment, realizing that he really didn't have anything to say.   
  
"What?" she giggled, making him aware that he had been staring at her.   
  
"N-nothing. Nevermind," he muttered, looking quickly at the ground. Kairi didn't seem convinced, but she didn't press the matter. Instead, she found something else to ask.   
  
"Kurama?"   
  
"What?" he asked, looking up at her again.   
  
"At the park, the other day," she started slowly. "Kuwabara said that you liked me. Was he right?"   
  
Kurama didn't know what to say. He couldn't say yes, but he couldn't say no either. He felt his mouth go dry as he tried to come up with an answer.   
  
"Well?" Kairi asked after Kurama had been silent for several minutes.   
  
"I...I don't know," he finally said truthfully.   
  
"Oh," was Kairi's reply as she turned back to the fish. Kurama couldn't tell if she was disappointed or not.   
  
-()-()-()  
  
Hiei walked alone through the forest, following the trail of familiar energy. Akira was close by. After his run in with Kurama and the fox's teasing, he had decided to find Akira and set it strait once and for all exactly was there was between them. The truth was, he didn't know if there truly was anything between them. They had been separated for so long...  
  
He swore under his breath as a loud crack resounded through the woods as he stepped on a twig. There was a laugh from above him and he looked up to find Akira staring down at him from a branch above his head.   
  
"You never could sneak up on me," she teased. Hiei didn't answer. She smirked down at him for a moment more before looking away and saying in a bored tone, "You're lucky I stopped."   
  
"What?" he asked, wondering what in the world she was talking about. Akira smiled. She had his attention now.   
  
"That little show of swordsmanship we had a few days ago. Do you really think you would have won, or even escaped alive if I hadn't stopped my blade?" she asked.   
  
Hiei spoke slowly, trying to hide his outrage at those words. "What makes you think YOU would have gotten away alive it I hadn't stopped MY attack!?"  
  
"You haven't changed a bit," Akira said with a laugh.   
  
"HN!" Hiei grunted as he turned to leave, wondering how he could have even imagined that he could have feelings for this girl.   
  
"Wait!" Akira suddenly called from behind him.   
  
"What?!" he growled, turning back.   
  
"I..." Akira fumbled with her words, all traces of her smug attitude gone.   
  
"You what?" Hiei asked, some of the anger leaving his voice at her tone.   
  
"I...I missed you," Akira finally said quietly.   
  
Hiei was silent for a moment. He turned, but didn't leave, just stared at the trees in front of him.   
  
"I missed you too," he said finally, still not facing her. And then he was gone. 


	11. Stories Told

Hi everybody! One thing before I start. Does anyone know anything about what goes on at a traditional Japanese wedding? I need to know for the last chapter. If anyone knows, please let me know via e-mail or review or whatever. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks. ON WITH THE FIC!!!  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Late that night, after Kairi and Sazume had gone to sleep, another midnight meeting took place at Genkai's temple.   
  
"So, what do we do now? Hunt Nightmare down or what?" Yusuke asked.   
  
"Well...not exactly," Botan replied uneasily.   
  
"Why the hell not? We know where their base is and everything, lets just go get rid of them," Yusuke said.   
  
"Correction, we KNEW where their base was," Botan sighed.   
  
"What do you mean?" Kurama asked.   
  
"Well, when we went back to have a look at Nightmare's base, all traces that they had been there were gone. We don't know where they are now. We've even been locked out of their network somehow. The only files we still have are ones that we had the foresight to save separately, which isn't much more then Kairi and Sazume's data," Botan explained.   
  
"So then, what do we do now?" Yusuke asked.   
  
"Wait for them to show up again. It's all we can do," Koenma replied.   
  
Yusuke thumped his fist on the floor and stood up. "Damn it Koenma! I already went through this with you! I am officially retiring at the end of the month, you understand that?! You're not going to put me on anymore wild goose chases!"  
  
"Relax Yusuke," Koenma said, apparently not phased by the soon-to-be former spirit detective's outburst. "I'm well aware of your plans. In fact, I already have someone in mind to take your place."  
  
"Really? Who?" Yusuke asked, blinking in surprise at the unexpected answer he had received. Koenma had been going on for weeks about how hard it was to find a replacement for Yusuke. Who could he have found so suddenly like this?  
  
"You'll see. Just be patient," Koenma said with a smirk. Yusuke got the feeling that Koenma was hinting something to him, but he didn't know what. He glanced back at Kuwabara and Kurama, but they shook their heads. Hiei, who had taken his usual place in the corner, didn't give Yusuke any indication that he was even listening to the conversation, so Yusuke simply ignored him.   
  
"Exactly how patient are we talking here?" Yusuke asked, turning back to Koenma.   
  
"Actually, I think you'll all get the opportunity to meet our new spirit detective tomorrow," Koenma said, still giving Yusuke that annoying grin that clearly said 'I know something you don't know!'  
  
"Tomorrow? What do mean?" Kuwabara asked.   
  
"Sorry, you'll just have to wait to find out," Koenma said, folding his arms and disappearing in a cloud of smoke.   
  
"I hate it when he does that," Yusuke muttered as he sat back down.   
  
"Botan, do you know what he was talking about?" Kurama asked the blue-haired grim reaper who had summoned her oar and was preparing to leave as well.   
  
"Sorry, I'm not allowed to tell. You have to wait and see!" she called through a fit of giggles as she took off into the night.   
  
"Genkai?" Yusuke asked, turning to the old woman who had also stood up to go.   
  
"I don't know anymore then you, and neither does anyone else. So stop asking questions and go do something useful," Genkai said as she slid the door opened.   
  
"But it's the middle of the night," Yusuke protested.   
  
"Then sleep for all I care. Just be quiet about it," Genkai grunted as she stepped onto the temple's porch and shut the door behind her. The four left in the room exchanged glances.   
  
-()-()-()  
  
The next morning, Kairi felt almost herself again. She still didn't know why her hands had been bandaged, but they felt less soar then yesterday, so she removed the bandages. Her fingertips were red and slightly swollen, but there didn't appear to be anything else wrong with them.  
  
Aside from the fact that she now had a cat's ears, eyes, and tail, Kairi had noticed other differences that had occurred since the fusion. Her hearing was much better and she could even generate something she liked to call a sound-map. Basically, it was like a bat's echo vision. If she closed her eyes and concentrated, the world around her begin to form in the darkness of her mind. Outlines of plants and building painted before her eyes in silver lines that allowed her to see just as well as if her eyes were opened. She had no doubt that it would be useful later.   
  
As she wondered around the temple, stretching her stiff muscles, she caught sight of Akira sitting in a tree.   
  
"Hey!" she called up.   
  
"What do you want?" the wolf fusion asked, glaring down at her.   
  
"I wanted to ask you some things," Kairi said.   
  
Akira sighed. "Like what?"   
  
"Well, first off, do I have demon attacks and stuff like Kurama and the others now?" Kairi asked.   
  
Akira sighed again as if she was talking to a very annoying child. "Yes, but you have to find them out for yourself. You should learn them threw experience, most of them on instinct. Your demon side already knows attacks and strategies, it's just a matter of you growing powerful enough to unlock them."   
  
"Oh...can I ask you another question?"   
  
"You just did," Akira muttered, turning her gaze from Kairi to the sky.   
  
"I mean a personal question," Kairi explained.   
  
"Depends on the question," Akira retorted.   
  
"How do you know Hiei? I have the felling that you guys have a...past together," Kairi said hesitantly, afraid that she would make Akira mad. Akira was silent for a long time, and Kairi began to suspect that she wouldn't answer at all. But then Akira let out a sigh and said simply, "We're old friends." Kairi wasn't sure if she would continue, but she did.  
  
"As you know, I was the first survivor of the Demonic Fusion. I was only four at the time, but I unlocked my powers right away. It wasn't more then a week after the fusion that I generated a tornado and destroyed the building I was being kept in. I spent a few days in the city after that, but they were always in fear. Constantly hiding in shadows, afraid of what people might do if they saw me, what with my tail and all.   
  
"Eventually, I stumbled upon a portal to the demon world. It had been opened by some lower class demon who had either not had the power or the decency to close it. I stepped through without hesitation, not able to imagine how that world could be any worse then the constant terror I lived in while I was in this one. I won't lie to you, the demon world is a harsh, unforgiving place. I'm more then lucky to have survived, being as weak as I was then.   
  
"I spent many years there without increasing my powers anymore. They weren't impressive, but they were enough to let me survive the encounters I had with other demons. For the most part, those encounters were few. I made it a rule to steer clear of demons, especially groups of them. I wasn't ignorant of my power and I knew my limits, and I was careful not to exceed them.   
  
"Then, one night, I caught the sounds of a nearby battle. I didn't take part in it, didn't even watch, but I waited until it ended. I already said that the demon world is harsh, and it's no secret that many things can be taken from the fallen bodies of those killed in battle. To be honest, such a thing doesn't even earn a second thought there, it's just how one survives. Knowing this, I went to the site of the battle the next morning. The small clearing of trees where the fight had taken place was littered with bodies. There were so many that it was hard to tell where one ended and another began. But then one of them moved.   
  
"To be brutally honest, I had every intention of killing the demon that had moved, fearing that if I didn't, he would kill me. But as I took a better look at him, I couldn't do it. I felt...pity for him having been so badly wounded. I had never felt that before, and I gave in to the emotion, bringing the demon back with me to my campsite."  
  
"It was Hiei, wasn't it," Kairi interrupted then.   
  
Akira nodded, still staring at the clouds above her. "Yes, it was Hiei. I bandaged his wounds as best I could. I made sure to keep the fire going all the time so he wouldn't be cold and I gave him soup now and then to keep him alive. I'm still not sure why I did that all for him, but I did. After a few days, he opened his eyes. He didn't say much, except to ask my name and what had happened, all of which I answered, to the extent of my knowledge. There was silence between us most of the time. He ate the food I gave him and allowed me to change the dressings on his wounds now and then, but we didn't talk or interact in any other way.   
  
"In about a week, his strength returned and he left to get his own food and whatever else he wanted to do. I fully expected that that would be the last I would see of him, but it wasn't. He always came back. I don't know why, I don't think he even knows, but he always did. Then we began to talk, and even to become friends." Akira paused, sighing as she glanced down at the black glove on her right arm, the glove that became a black sword at her command.   
  
"He gave me this sword you know," she said quietly. "He said that if I wasn't strong enough to unlock the other powers I had gained from the fusion, then I should at least have a sword to protect myself with. We used to train against each other. At first he'd always win, but then I began to end it in draws, and even win myself at times." Akira stopped again, a wistful look in her eyes.   
  
"What happened?" Kairi asked.   
  
"We went our separate ways," Akira said, the wistful look evaporating. "He had his priorities and I had mine," then she laughed. "I never thought I'd see him again. The only reason I even came to this world was because I hear that Nightmare's demons were about. I always have time to hunt one of them down."   
  
Kairi smiled, and lowered her gaze to the grass swaying in the morning breeze around her feet.   
  
-()-()-()  
  
Sazume had woken up early and sat on the steps leading to Genkai's temple, watching Kairi and Akira talk. She still couldn't believe how different her sister was. A few short days again, Kairi would never have tried to hold a conversation with anyone other than with Sazume or Kuwabara. But now...she was like a different person. She was happy and energetic and, above all, friendly. Sazume wondered if this was the person Kairi was supposed to be, the person she would have been if she hadn't witnessed their mother's tragic death.   
  
As she pondered this, she glanced down the steps to see someone at the bottom. It was a boy about her age. As he began to climb, she had the strange feeling that she had seen him before. He had dark hair and dark eyes and seemed slightly embarrassed to be here. As he got closer, Sazume was finally able to place him. He was Shuichi, Kurama's younger step-brother. What was he doing here? Just as she was thinking this, and wondering how in the world having two boys named Shuichi in the same house didn't get confusing, he called to her.   
  
"Sazume! What are you doing here?" he asked as he reached the top of the steps, slightly out of breath.   
  
"Oh...um...my sister is here visiting a friend," Sazume said. It wasn't a complete lie, although she wasn't entirely sure that she would call Akira a friend. At least, not yet anyway.   
  
"How about you?" she asked the boy who now stood in front of her.   
  
"Oh, well...that is...I was just..." he fumbled with his words as he scratched his head and looked at the ground, obviously embarrassed about something.  
  
"What?" Sazume asked.   
  
"Well...promise you won't tell anyone?" he said finally, lowering his voice.   
  
"Uh...sure," Sazume said, slightly unsure if she should have said that. She already had so many secrets to keep, about the fusion and Kurama's true identity. She wasn't sure if she should be hiding anything else.   
  
"I came to talk to Master Genkai," he said finally in almost a whisper.   
  
"Why is that a secret?" Sazume asked.   
  
"It's not that. It's what I came to talk to her about," he said, still looking nervous to be telling anyone this.   
  
"What did you come to talk to her about?" Sazume said politely, trying not to push him if he didn't want to tell her.   
  
"Well, lately, I've been getting...weird feelings," he said quietly.   
  
"Like what?" Sazume asked, but she already knew the answer. Kuwabara had explained all about the 'tickle feeling' and she was almost positive that Shuichi was talking about almost the same thing. But if he had a high spirit awareness like Kuwabara, then what else could he do?  
  
"Well, like you," he said in answer to her question.   
  
"Me?" Sazume said, trying not to sound to panicked.   
  
"Yeah. You don't feel the same as the last time I saw you. I can't explain it. You just seem...different," he said.  
  
"Yes, perhaps it is time you knew the whole story," a gruff voice said behind them, making them both jump. They turned to see Genkai standing there calmly, with her hands folded behind her back.   
  
"What do you mean the 'whole story?'" Shuichi asked.   
  
"Now wait a minute," Sazume said nervously, standing up. One thing Kurama had made very clear to her was that she was not to tell his family ANYTHING about ANY of the things she had learned in the past few days, especially his past.   
  
"If his spirit awareness has grown strong enough to distinguish between you and a regular human, that it is only a matter of time before he notices Kurama's differences as well," Genkai answered, guessing what Sazume had been thinking.   
  
"Now, if you'll fallow me, I'll explain everything over some tea," Genkai said in a sweet, but demanding tone. Shuichi looked from the old woman to Sazume before following her, obviously more confused then when he arrived. Sazume stared after them for a moment, before shaking her head and hurrying after them.   
  
"Kurama is going to kill me," she muttered to herself as she followed the old woman who was leading her dazed classmate into the temple. 


	12. Frog Legs

Hey, I'm back again! Sorry for the delay, I've ended up changing this a lot from what Kitsune no Kami and I originally had, but all the changes are for the better, I'm sure. As a result though, it's taken me a little longer to post then I expected, but here I am with another new chappy! In the last chapter, or maybe it was the one before, I asked for info on traditional Japanese weddings. I would now like to withdraw that request because I decided to just go with what I know and have that scene be in the normal, western style that we're all used to. But, don't worry about that now because that won't really come up for a while. So for now...ON WITH THE FIC!!! ;) (got a makeshift smiley!!! Yay!!!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuichi sat in the bare room Genkai had lead him too, staring at the old woman who was now calmly sipping tea. Sazume sat to his right, not saying anything, but playing with her hands and watching him nervously. Not more then an hour ago, his life had been normal. He went to a normal school, had normal friends, and thought he had a normal family. But apparently, that wasn't quite right.

If all that he had just heard was true, as Genkai and Sazume assured him it was, then very little about his life was normal. He still couldn't believe it, his mind simply refused to process it. How could he have powers as the old psychic had said, and how could his step-brother be a demon? Somehow, it made no sense whatsoever, and all the sense in the world at the same time. It explained Shu--no, Kurama's long absences in the past as well as why Shuichi had seen him once or twice in the company of the short man who always wore black and gave Shuichi a strange sensation of great, inhuman power. But it also seemed like the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. Believing his step-brother was a demon was like believing in Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny.

What made his head swim even more was what Genkai had said about him. She had told him about a boy named Kuwabara, who he had also seen in Shu--Kurama's company, and who had the same sort of powers as Genkai alleged that he--normal, average Shuichi--had. She said that he had high spirit awareness and could sense, and even see, things that many others couldn't. She also said that if he practiced and trained and learned to focus this power, he could channel it into attacks. Just as the story about his brother, it seemed like an unmistakable lie, and an absolute truth at the same time.

"No," he managed to mumble, although his mouth was so dry that it was hard to make any sound at all. "No, that can't be true. It can't be."

"If you don't believe me, then see for yourself," Genkai answered his mumbled words, making him look up.

"How?" he asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Put your hand out, palm facing outward," Genkai instructed as Shuichi obediently raised his right hand, "And for goodness sake, don't point it at anyone!" she added as Shuichi stopped his arm in the air, palm aimed at her. He moved it to the left so it was no longer pointed at the renowned psychic.

"Now, imagine your body surrounded by energy," Genkai continued as Shuichi closed his eyes and pictured himself surrounded by a bright, white aura. "And imagine it all gathering at your palm," was the next instruction. Shuichi did so, picturing the light moving to his palm in his mind. To his surprise, his outstretched hand began to feel warm.

"And now, release it!" Genkai's final step cut through Shuichi's thoughts and he did as he was told, opening his eyes in time to see a small sphere of white light blast a hole in the wall to the left of where Genkai sat.

"Wow! That was great!" Sazume cheered, but Shuichi barely heard her. He just stared, even more dumbfounded then before. Genkai sighed as she realized, after assessing the boy's first attempt, that he had great potential in him and would need further training by someone who knew what they were doing.

"I'm getting too old for this," she muttered to herself, taking another sip of tea.

-()-()-()

Kairi, who had been wandering aimlessly around the temple since parting company with Akira nearly an hour ago, was startled to hear the sound of what seemed to be a mini explosion reach her sensitive ears.

"What the-?" she wondered out loud, taking a step towards the sound.

"Good morning!" a voice from behind her cut into her thoughts. Kairi, who had evidently wandered near the stairs leading to the temple, turned to find Kurama smiling at her.

"Hi," she greeted, still slightly worried about the sound she had heard.

"Hey, Kairi!" they both turned to see Sazume running towards them from the temple's entrance. "You'll never guess what-" she stopped short as she caught sight of Kurama.

"Oh...um...hi Kurama," she said weakly. Kairi and Kurama exchanged glances.

"Zoom, what are you-" Kairi began, but she stopped herself when two more figures emerged from the temple behind her sister. One was Genkai, and the other was a boy Sazume's age who looked pale and a little shaken.

"Shuichi?" Kurama asked. The boy looked up, but didn't say anything.

"Shuichi, what are you doing here?" Kurama asked, taking a step forward.

"Is it true?" the boy, Shuichi, asked in a small voice.

"Is what true?" Kurama questioned.

"That you're a demon," he said. Kurama blinked, then turned to Genkai and Sazume.

"I told her not to tell him, I swear!" Sazume cried in her defense.

"He had to know," Genkai said simply. "He showed signs of high spirit awareness and even blasted a hole in my wall. If I didn't tell him, it would only have been a matter of time before he found out for himself."

"Well? Are you a demon?" Shuichi asked again.

Kurama looked back at Genkai again before closing his eyes and saying "Yes, Shuichi, I am a demon."

Shuichi, who had looked on the verge of collapse since he had walked out of the temple, now lapsed into a full faint, falling unconscious to the grass.

"Shuichi!" Sazume cried in alarm, rushing to her fallen friend.

"He's fine, just a little overwhelmed," Genkai assured her.

Kairi was about to say something when a sound made her sensitive ears twitch. She turned towards the source, the temple's roof, and walked slowly towards the temple.

"What's wrong?" Sazume asked from her seat on the ground next to the unconscious Shuichi, watching her sister walk past her.

"I thought I heard something," she said quietly, still advancing towards the temple. In the next instant, Hiei and Akira were on the scene as well.

"What are you doing here?" Kairi asked, glancing back at her fellow fusion.

"I had a feeling something was about to happen," Akira answered. Kairi was about to ask what that meant, when she remembered that dogs had a kind of sixth sense for detecting danger. She wasn't sure, but she guessed that must have been the feeling Akira was talking about.

"There's the feel of a foreign energy in the air as well," Hiei observed, trying to pinpoint where the suspicious ki was coming from.

"What is everyone doing outside?" Yukina asked, suddenly appearing in the doorway. She didn't get an answer, however, because she was suddenly shoved aside by a barrier that expanded to form a bubble around the temple, forcing all but Kairi backwards. Kairi, was trapped inside the barrier.

"Kairi!" Sazume cried while the others regained their feet. Kairi was staring fearfully at the temple where she knew something lurked on the roof. She knew she had gained powers from the fusion, but she had yet to discover what those powers, other then her sound map, were. She doubted she could win a fight with whatever had set the barrier to trap her.

Then a shadow came into view on the roof, jumping to land in front of Kairi, who stepped back to the edge of the barrier. The thing was some sort of frog-like demon that surveyed her with narrowed eyes. It let out a horrible laugh that came out as a strangled croaking sound.

"Hello pretty kitty," he greeted, his voice like sandpaper.

"Hey, listen frog-legs," Kairi started nervously, pressing herself closer against the barriers edge and looking frantically for a way out that she knew wasn't there. "Can I take a rain check on this whole fight thing? I'm not really up to it today," she said, letting out a nervous laugh. The frog only came closer.

"Sorry pretty kitty, not rain check," the frog croaked.

"Bummer..." Kairi muttered before glancing back to were her so called 'friends' stood watching and hissed "Help me!"

"We can't stupid, there's a barrier!" Akira said irritably.

"Noxious Gas!" the frog demon yelled, opening his mouth and belching forth some truly disgusting yellow gas.

"Kairi!" Sazume called again as the bubble the barrier had formed around the temple clouded with gas. Kairi didn't answer, but they could hear the sound of her strangled coughs. After what felt like hours, the gas began to dissipate, leaving Kairi visible to her friends once more. She coughed into her arm, poisonous gas still choking her lungs. Kairi blinked her watery eyes, only to find that everything was black whether she had them opened or closed. The gas had blinded her!

"I...I can't see!" she cried, rubbing her eyes frantically. The frog only gave another croaking laugh.

"Foolish kitty!" he declared. Kairi growled, she wasn't going to let him win. She gave up the losing battle to rub the poison from her eyes and stood up, closing her useless eyes to concentrate on her sound map. The world slowly pained itself in silvery outlines on the canvas of her closed eyelids. She could see the frog demon as clearly as she had with her eyes opened. A smile spread across her lips, she was down but most certainly not out.

As she watched, the frog opened his mouth again and his long, sticky tongue shot forth like a harpoon. Unbeknownst to him, however, she could see it. With a step to the left, she easily avoided it and it crashed harmlessly into the barrier behind her, sticking to the force field's invisible wall. Acting on instinct alone, and barely aware of what she was doing, Kairi reached out a hand and grasped the tongue. She wasn't sure how she knew, but some how she was suddenly aware of what her power was. Electricity.

"Hey frog-legs," she said, much more confidently then the last time she had spoken to the demon, "have you ever stuck your tongue in an electrical socket? No. Well, it probably feels something like this!" With that, she let the energy she had felt store in her arm flow into the frog's tongue, sending a powerful electric jolt through his body.

"Shocking, isn't it?" she said as she pried her hand off the sticky tongue that then retracted back into the frog's mouth.

"Whoa!" Sazume gasped, staring in awe at her sister. "How did she know to do that?"

"That's the way the awakening of a fusion's power works," Akira said, also staring at Kairi in amazement, "it's all instinct."

The frog, who had been knocked on his back by Kairi's electroshock treatment, now struggled to his feet, swaying like a drunk. Again, instincts took over Kairi's brain. Spreading her fingers wide, she suddenly produced claws that were three inches long. Well, at least there was the mystery of what had happened to her hands solved. The claws, she realized as they began to charge with energy, where her main weapons. As sparks built up around the claws, she was suddenly aware of exactly what to do next.

Raising her hands to shoulder height, she brought them down fast, crossing them halfway so that they formed a glowing 'X' in the air.

"Lightning Cat Claw!" she yelled as her yellow electric X exploded towards the teetering frog. It hit him dead on, burning an X into his chest and knocking him unconscious.

Watching the windscreen in his office, Koenma smiled in satisfaction as Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Botan cheered.


	13. What Test?

Alright, I'm back again. Sorry I took so long to update. For those of you that don't know, my original 'Prisoners' fic was killed along with it's sequel a week ago, so I wasn't able to update for a while. Hopefully, that's the last time something like this will happen. So, here we finally go again. ON WITH THE FIC!!! :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shuichi awoke with a start to the feeling of cold water on his face. He blinked and sat up, turning to see Sazume sitting next to him with a bright smile on her face.

"What happened?" he asked wearily, trying to recall what had caused him to faint.

"You had a bit of an overload, but Genkai says you'll be okay," Sazume explained.

'Genkai?' Shuichi wondered to himself, but the thought brought everything rushing back and he had to struggle not to faint again under the burden of all that information.

"Are you alright?" Sazume asked worriedly, her friend having gone suddenly pale again.

"Y-yeah. Fine," Shuichi muttered, trying to force a smile. His efforts to forge a smile proving futile, he turned his gaze to the others around him. He was sitting on the grass in front of Genkai's temple. Next to Sazume sat a bowl of water that he assumed she had used to wake him up. It was being used by another girl at the moment, however. She was rubbing her eyes, apparently trying to wash something out of them.

"That's better," she sighed as she lowered her hands and blinked at everyone around her. Shuichi had seen this girl before, right before he fainted. She had been standing next to Shu...er...Kur...um...his brother. Yes, it was much easier to simply refer to the green-eyed red head simply as 'his brother,' for now anyway. Prying his thoughts from his brother, Shuichi took another look at the girl. He had been too preoccupied with the news of his brother to take a good look at her before, and there seemed to be something out of place.

"That's my sister, Kairi," Sazume said, following Shuichi's gaze. He nodded, studying the girl who was now smiling at him. She certainly looked like Sazume's sister. Same smile, same blond hair, same...wait a minute. Her eyes, which at first glance had seemed so much like Sazume's were...no, they couldn't be! Shuichi blinked and looked again, thinking he had imagined it, wishing he had imagined it. But no, he hadn't. Her eyes were those of a cats! They were a deep turquoise with thin slits for pupils. And that wasn't all! Her hair was different too. It had some sort of pattern in it made up of white diamonds that met at a point in the center of her bangs. The center diamond was the longest, reaching the full length of the top of her head. The two outer diamonds were smaller, stopping at...at....CAT EARS!!! Shuichi gasped as he realized she had two, black cat ears perched on top of her head, the left one (Kairi's left) with a golden chain earring along the outer side. That was more then enough, but it still wasn't all that was different about this girl. Another few seconds of staring and Shuichi had discovered that she also had a black tail swishing patiently behind her. Poor Shuichi, this was simply too much for him. His eyes rolled back into his head once more and he fell forward into another faint.

"There he goes again," Sazume sighed as she caught her classmate and laid him back on the grass.

"Are you sure he's alright?" Kairi asked, leaning forward to get a better look at the incapacitated boy.

"Well how did you expect him to react? You have ears and a tail, that's not exactly normal!" Sazume cried in her new friend's defense.

"Oh...well..." Kairi muttered, turning to stare at her pitch black tail.

"You're sure this one has potential, old woman?" Akira asked Genkai, glancing skeptically at Shuichi.

"He put a hole in my wall," Genkai answered calmly, "which I just had repaired," she added.

"I really should have been the one to tell him," Kurama said quietly with a worried glance at his younger step-brother.

"Yes, you should have, but even knowing that he had high spirit energy, you wouldn't have said a word to him and you know it. You've kept your secret for too long to tell him because I said you should," Genkai said. Kurama narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.

"Splendid! Stupendous!" a bubbly voice made them all look up. Kairi and Sazume gasped in surprise as they were met with the sight of a bright eyed, smiling girl with blue hair and wearing a pink kimono descending from the sky on an oar.

"You've passed the test with flying colors!" the blue haired girl exclaimed as she landed on the ground before them. She jumped off her oar, which vanished into thin air the moment she was off.

"Um...who are you and what are you talking about?" Kairi asked, blinking in surprise at the eccentric girl before her.

"Oh, where are my manors!" the girl exclaimed. "I'm Botan."

"Um...where you...flying?" Sazume asked, staring with wide eyes at Botan.

"Yep," Botan said with a nod, "It's part of my job."

"And that is...?" Kairi asked.

"I'm the grim reaper," Botan said simply. Kairi and Sazume both nearly fell forward in surprise.

"WHAT?!" they both cried.

"Why does everyone always react like that?" Botan huffed, looking slightly hurt.

"Oh...sorry, it's just, well..." Kairi tried to explain. "It's just that the grim reaper...I expected the grim reaper to act, well, more like Hiei," she said, earning an indignant "Hn," from Hiei.

"What test are you talking about, Botan?" Kurama asked, seeing that the conversation clearly wasn't going to return to that subject anytime soon without help.

"Koenma's test of course!" Botan chirped, receiving a number of blank stares.

"Koenma..." Kairi wondered out loud, trying to remember where she had heard that name before. "Isn't he the ruler of Spirit World?"

"That's what Yusuke said when he explained it all to me," Sazume confirmed.

"Koenma didn't give me any test," Kairi said, blinking in confusion at Botan once more.

"Of course he did silly! The frog you just cooked!" Botan explained.

"Whoa! Back up!" Kairi cried, taking a step back, "You mean to tell me that Koenma sent frog-legs to come try to kill me on purpose?!" Botan nodded.

"You mean that frog demon was the test?" Sazume asked. Botan nodded again.

"Why?" both Kairi and Sazume asked at once.

"To see if you were Spirit Detective material," Botan said matter-of-factly.

"But, isn't that job already taken?" Kairi asked. Sazume_ had_ said that Yusuke was Spirit Detective, hadn't she?

"So she was the one Koenma was talking about," Kurama said, more to himself then the group.

"Bingo!" Botan exclaimed with a renewed smile.

"But isn't Yusuke Spirit Detective?" Kairi asked again, annoyed that her question was being ignored and wondering who the 'she' was that Kurama was talking about.

"Yusuke is engaged to be married and no longer wishes to be Spirit Detective. Koenma has been looking for a replacement, and it seems he's found one," Kurama explained.

"Wait...me?" Kairi asked. Kurama and Botan nodded.

"You really think it's a good idea to put the safety of the human race in Sparky's hands?" Akira asked, having heard about Kairi's jump over the street.

"Hey!" Kairi protested.

"She has a point," Sazume said quietly, avoiding Kairi's eyes. "You're not exactly the most...rational person in the world."

"Who's side are you one?!" Kairi cried, glaring at her sister. Kairi sighed and turned back to Botan. "Let me see if I've got this straight. Frog-legs was some kind of test to see if I could be Spirit Detective, right?" Botan nodded.

"And I passed?" Kairi continued. More nodding.

"So...that means what exactly?" Kairi finished.

"It means," Botan said in a very important-sounding voice, "that Lord Koenma, gracious ruler of Spirit World, has decided to appoint you, Kairi Taragotta, the job of detective of Spirit World." Absolute silence followed this statement.

"Um...what exactly does a 'Spirit Detective' do?" Kairi asked, wondering how sane this girl who claimed to be the grim reaper was.

"I'm so glad you asked! Koenma said he wanted to see you to explain your first mission right away!" Botan said with a smile even bigger then her previous ones. Shuichi happened to pick that moment to wake up. With a groan, he opened his eyes to find the bright eyed, blue haired grim reaper peering down at him with her face uncomfortably close to his. Needless to say, he was surprised. With a startled cry he scrambled backwards, blushing furiously.

"Don't I know you?" Botan asked, straightening up.

"N-no," Shuichi stuttered, still blushing.

"He's my brother, Shuichi," Kurama explained, trying to suppress a laugh.

"Ah yes, that's right! I knew I'd seen you before!" Botan said, completely oblivious to Shuichi's discomfort. "You'd better come too."

"C-come? Come where?" Shuichi asked, the redness finally starting to drain from his face.

"To see Koenma!" Botan exclaimed. Shuichi just blinked up at her.

"Did I miss something?" he finally asked, turning to stare at Kurama.

"You might as well come," Kurama said with a sigh, extending a hand to help his brother up. "I'll explain everything on the way."

"Actually, you won't have time," Botan said before turning to Genkai and asking, "Do you have a large mirror anywhere?"

"Yes, what for?" Genkai replied, somewhat surprised by Botan's request.

"Yume has a new system that allows us to travel right to her laboratory in Koenma's palace through any mirror here in the human world," Botan explained.

"Who's Yume?" Kairi asked. She glanced at Kurama, but he didn't seem to know either.

"You'll meet her in a few minutes," Botan said as Genkai began to lead the way to the temple. "If we don't get there soon, Koenma will get cranky," she added in a worried tone. "Hiei, you and Akira are to come too!" Botan called over her shoulder at the two shorter demons who weren't following her. Hiei grunted, but wasn't in the mood to argue with the overly-happy Botan. Akira didn't protest either, but looked annoyed at being ordered around.

"Here we go!" Botan exclaimed as they were lead to a large mirror in one of the temple's rooms that was three feet tall and at least six feet wide. Botan dug into the folds of her kimono and produced what looked like a compact. She flipped it opened to reveal that it was some kind of communication device.

"Ready whenever you are," she said into it.

"Alright, be prepaired for a bit of a head-rush," a voice came threw the tiny speakers. There was an image of whoever was speaking on the compact's tiny screen, but Botan closed it before Kairi or any of the others could see who it was. It was soon driven from their minds, however, as the mirror before them began to give off a faint, bluish light.

"Now be careful and try not to land on me when you get threw," Botan said, reaching out a hand. Her fingers melted into the mirror, her arm soon following, and in less then ten seconds, she was gone. Kairi gaped at the mirror while Sazume and Yukina did the same, Shuichi looked about to faint again, Kurama and Genkai simply stared calmly at it, and Hiei and Akira seemed to take no interest in it at all.

"Well," Kairi said after a moment of nervous staring, "nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?" Swallowing in fear, she stepped up to the mirror and extended a shaky arm, just as Botan had done.

"Careful," Sazume said from behind her, watching her sister fearfully.

"Aren't I always?" Kairi replied with a nervous smile. With one final breath, she plunged her fingers into the mirror. The mirror gave way and swallowed her fingers, feeling like warm putty against her skin. She didn't have to worry about working up the courage to step all the way through, however, because the mirror automatically began to suck her in. She watched fearfully as he arm was swallowed as well, all the way up to the shoulder. With a startled cry, she tried to pull back, but the mirror wouldn't let go. It continued to pull her in and, seeing there was nothing that she could do, Kairi squeezed her eyes shut as her head was submerged in the goo.


	14. A New Team is Formed

Hey, I'm back again. Sorry I haven't updated this one in a while. I had hoped to finish this first story in the VOD chronicles before school started, but that obviously didn't happen. In any case, let's get back on track and pick up where we left off. ON WITH THE FIC!!!

BTW: For this chapter you will need to know that 'Pochi' is Japanese for 'dog,' and 'wan-chan' means 'doggy.'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**K**airi was experiencing the most indescribable and just plan odd feeling she could ever have imagined. Submerged in the goo that used to be a mirror, she felt as if she was being pulled in a hundred directions at once. She couldn't seem to get her bearings at all. It was impossible to tell whether she was moving forwards or backwards or an entirely other wards all together, or even if she was upside-down or rightside-up or somewhere in between. The light around her was intense and nauseating, forcing her to close her eyes, and the air was freezing and unbearably hot at the same time. Even the texture of the goo around her was unsure to her. Sometimes it was smooth, sometimes bumpy, sometimes wet, sometimes dry, and other times she couldn't even describe what it felt like.

Just as she felt that she couldn't take the extremities of this place for another second, she felt herself lurch forward and was suddenly in open air, just before she crashed into the cold floor.

"Are you alright?" Botan's voice came from above her.

"Just peachy," Kairi muttered as she slowly pushed herself up, blinking rapidly and still fighting off nausea.

"You might want to move," Botan warned, extending a hand to help the disoriented girl on the ground. Kairi took her hand and stood just as Sazume appeared from the mirror with a cry of surprise, landing hard on the floor in the exact spot Kairi had occupied not moments before. It wasn't long after that Kurama and Shuichi joined them, Shuichi landing on his face as Kairi and Sazume had, and Kurama managing to maintain some dignity and land in an awkward crouch. Hiei and Akira both somehow managed to land perfectly on their feet, not showing any signs that the trip had been uncomfortable at all. Genkai and Yukina had chosen to remain at the temple.

"Good, now that we're all here, follow me!" Botan said, turning to leave.

"Where exactly are we?" Kairi asked before the blue-haired deity could take a step.

"In Spirit World of course," Botan answered.

"No, I mean who's room is this? It looks like Frankenstein's mansion or something," Kairi said, looking around. Indeed, the other end of the portal they had come through was in a large room filled with tables holding all kinds of things in bottles as well as scattered pieces of high-tech equipment. A computer with a huge monitor dominated the far war. Shuichi caught sight of an eye floating in a jar. He blinked at it in curiosity, and almost had a heart attack when it blinked back.

"This is Yume's lab, you'll meet her soon, now come on. Koenma doesn't like to be kept waiting," Botan explained, leading them out of the room and down a long hallway. She turned right at the end of the hall and they found themselves before a massive set of double doors. Botan through one opened and led them inside.

"Ah, there you are, Botan," Koenma said from behind his desk. He was in toddler form with Yusuke at his right and Kuwabara standing at his left.

"YOU'RE KOENMA?!" Kairi, Sazume, and Shuichi all exclaimed at the same time, staring in disbelief at the toddler in question. Akira didn't say anything, but surprise was still evident on her face.

Yusuke and Kuwabara burst out laughing while Koenma yelled something, but none of them could hear it over the now former Spirit Detective's hysterics. Once Yusuke and Kuwabara's laughter finally subsided, Koenma cleared his throat and was all business once more.

"I hope you're not too upset over my surprise test, but I had to see what you were capable of," Koenma explained, addressing Kairi.

"Yeah, well, I'd appreciate it if you warned me next time," Kairi said quietly, still slightly shocked that the ruler of Spirit World looked like a two-year-old.

"That wasn't bad for you're first fight, Rookie," Yusuke said with a smile, coming around the desk to pat Kairi on the back.

"I'm guessing you're Yusuke, my predecessor, right?" Kairi asked.

"The one and only," Yusuke said proudly, trying to make himself look important. "Don't try to hard to be as good as me, you might hurt yourself," Yusuke added, his cocky attitude getting the better of him as it had so many times in the past.

"I don't know, Urameshi," Kuwabara said, also coming to stand by Kairi. "It shouldn't be too hard for her. I'll just be happy if she doesn't die every time I turn around."

"Shut up!" Yusuke shot back, raising a fist.

"Make me!" Kuwabara returned, ready for the fight, and there would have indeed been a fight if someone hadn't come through the door behind them just then.

"What's all the commotion about in here?"

The group all turned, Yusuke and Kuwabara clutching each other's collars, to see the strangest girl any of them had ever set eyes on. She had short, light green hair and yellow eyes. She was wearing a plain white T-shirt and black overalls with thick gloves on her hands. On her face was a pair of goggles that magnified her eyes by at least ten times, making them look absurdly big. She blinked her disproportionate eyes at them.

"Excuse me," Sazume was the first to speak, "but who are you?"

"Yume," the girl said with a smile, "Spirit World engineer!"

"So you're Yume," Kairi muttered to herself, looking over the girl again.

"What exactly does a 'Spirit World engineer' do?" Shuichi asked.

"I make all the cool little gadgets Botan is always losing," Yume answered simply.

"I didn't lose them! Yusuke did!" Botan cried in her defense, but Yume didn't seem to notice.

"And you," Yume said, turning to look at Kairi, "must be our new Spirit Detective." Kairi only nodded as Yume began to circle her, surveying her critically.

"I have to hand it to Nightmare," Yume said, more to herself then to anyone else. "They may be completely out of their minds, but they do a hell of a job. Very impressive. Oh, and here, take this," Yume added as she took a bottle of blue liquid from a pocket in her overalls and handed it to Kairi.

"What is it?" Kairi asked.

"My Normality Potion. It will make you seem like your old human self to anyone without high spirit awareness. Just take a spoon-full every morning and you should be fine. The effects last for 24 hours. A word of warning though, I haven't worked out all the bugs in it yet and your shadow might still have ears and tail, just so you know," Yume explained.

"Um...thanks," Kairi said, trying to remember everything she had just been told.

"Are you finished?" Koenma's irritated voice came from behind them.

"Yes, go ahead, sir," Yume answered as she and Botan moved to stand on either side of Koenma's desk.

"Now then," Koenma said, folding his hands in front of him, "Kairi is not the only one who's services I am recruiting."

"Let me remind you that _my_ sentence has been served," Hiei spoke up, glaring at Koenma. "Besides that, I have other obligations now."

"I am well aware of your duties under Mukuro's supervision, Hiei," Koenma answered solemnly. "In any case, you were not the one I was talking to." Now he turned back to stare at Kairi, Sazume, and Shuichi, who were standing in the middle of the group.

"Sazume--" Koenma began, but she cut him off.

"Don't worry, I would never dream of letting Kairi do this alone," Sazume said with a smile.

"Well that makes things easier," Koenma replied. "And you, Shuichi. Genkai says that you have all the potential to become very powerful indeed. I've learned not to doubt Genkai, after all, she was the one who first put faith in Kuwabara's abilities."

Shuichi stared at the floor for a moment, unsure of what to say. He had been expecting Koenma to say something like that for the last several minutes, but now that the toddler _had_ said it, the confused boy didn't have an answer. Finally, he came to a decision and looked up with resolution and determination in his eyes.

"I'm in too," was all he managed to say, but Koenma could tell that he meant it will all his heart.

"Very good, now as for you," now Koenma turned to Akira.

"Thanks, but I have better things to do with my time then baby-sit those three," Akira snorted, folding her arms.

"Well actually," Koenma said, taking a file from the stack on his desk and opening it, "I've had some research done on you. You have a short criminal record, very short, but a record all the same. Now, I'll give you the same deal I gave Kurama and Hiei all those years ago. You can either serve out your sentence in a cell, or confined to Tokyo in the Human World as part of Kairi's team. The choice is yours."

Akira turned to look at Kairi, Sazume, and Shuichi, who all smiled back. Slowly, she turned back to Koenma and said "You're joking, right?"

"I've never been more serious," Koenma answered, despite the fact that a smile had grown on his face.

Akira was silent, before turning to Koenma once more and asking "How long?"

"One year or Five missions, whichever comes first," Koenma answered, now visibly trying not to laugh. Akira stared at him for another moment before dropping her gaze and shaking her head.

"This is going to be a long year," she muttered as Kairi, Sazume, and Shuichi let out a cheer.

"Alright Pochi!" Kairi cried. Akira's head snapped up, her tail swishing dangerously behind her.

_"What did you say?!"_ she growled.

"Awe come on. I let you call me 'Sparky,'" Kairi said, apparently not afraid of Akira's glare.

"I'm a wolf, not some common mutt!" Akira cried indignantly.

"Wan-chan! Wan-chan! Wan-chan!" Kairi began to chant, laughing as Akira became even more infuriated.

_"SHUT UP!!!"_ Akira almost screamed, a vein in her forehead sticking out so far it looked like it might burst. But Kairi only continued to chant, Sazume and Shuichi joining in.

"WAN-CHAN! WAN-CHAN! WAN-CHAN!" the three of them cried.

_"I'LL KILL YOU!!!" _Akira shrieked as her black glove morphed into a black katana. The three new Spirit Detectives raced to the other end of the room to put Koenma's desk between them and Akira, while Koenma, Botan, and Yume abandoned the desk to seek safety with Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei.

"I think it's a good match," Koenma commented after a moment as they watched Kairi, Sazume, and Shuichi run circles around his desk, still chanting, with Akira trying desperately to land an attack on one of them. They all three stopped and elapsed into laughing fits when Akira, in her blind rage, tripped over Koenma's chair and fell face-first to the floor.


	15. Epilogue: Yusuke's Wedding

Alright and here we finally are at the final chapter for the first story in the VOD chronicles. I hope you all enjoyed this and will come back to read the rest of the chronicles. Kitsune no Kami and I have big plans for the future and I am sure you will all love it! Also, be on the look out for a Halloween bonus story I will be writing in the next few weeks. Hopefully I won't let it go too long and it will be finished by the time Halloween is here. HOPEFULLY! So now, thanks for reading and...ON WITH THE FIC!!!

**(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)**

**I**t was a beautiful autumn day in the beginning of October. Yusuke and Keiko couldn't have hopped for a better day to start their lives together on. Kairi and her new team had only been spirit detectives for about a week and a half and felt like they were intruding to be there (except for Akira who they had to watch like a hawk to make sure didn't slip away when no one was looking) but Yusuke insisted that they all be there.

Botan, Shizuru, and Yukina where the brides maids and they all looked dazzling in their light purple gowns. Botan was trying her hardest not to cry, sniffling and dabbing her eyes with a tissue now and then. Shizuru was rolling her eyes and trying to get Botan to calm down while Yukina simply stared around her in innocent amazement.

The best men where, of course, Kuwabara, Hiei, and Kurama. Kuwabara kept his eyes on Yukina most of the time, earning more then a few death glares from Hiei. When he wasn't staring at the ice maiden, Kuwabara spent his time making fun of Hiei and saying what a miracle is was that they had gotten him to where a tux. Kurama only smiled and watched them argue, adding a few of his own teasings now and then.

In the front row on the groom's side of the pews sat Genkai, smiling and muttering "dimwit" under her breath every once in a while. Kairi sat next to her, feeling slightly out of place but smiling all the same. Akira was an interesting sight to behold. She had refused to where a dress and so, rather then risk getting her head severed, Kairi had compromised. Akira, as well as Kairi, had taken some of Yume's potion to make herself look human. She had her hair down and was wearing a tux minus the jacket. She received quite a few stares, most from Keiko's relatives, but she obviously didn't care. Sazume sat at the other side of Akira, helping Kairi keep and eye on the fusion who obviously didn't want to be there. Shuichi sat next to Sazume and at the end of the pew was Yusuke's mother, drunken and red faced as always, but she appeared happy, although she did cheer all throughout the ceremony as if she was at a football game.

Finally, the long ceremony ended and Yusuke and Keiko shared their first kiss as husband and wife. Everyone filed out of the church, happily talking and asking their friends to pose for pictures. Kairi was going to join the main crowd, but Yusuke stopped her.

"Come on, don't run off. My replacement should be in the pictures, don't you think?" Yusuke encouraged, dragging Kairi over while Sazume, Shuichi, and Akira followed uncertainly behind.

"I don't know Yusuke. I mean, I've only even known you for--" Kairi started to protest, but Yusuke cut her off.

"Nonsense. Now stand here and smile," he said as he pushed Kairi to stand by Kurama and turned to figure out where the other three new detectives should stand. Kairi flushed slightly in embarrassment and stared down at the ground. Kurama, noticing this, placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You shouldn't worry about it so much. After all, today should be a day of celebration and happiness," he said. Kairi looked up at those words and nodded, smiling so warmly that he couldn't help but smile back.

"Alright, everyone ready?" the photographer asked. Genkai, Yukina, Kuwabara (still staring at Yukina), Shizuru, a bawling Botan, Akira and Hiei (both with board and slightly annoyed expressions), Shuichi, Sazume, Kurama, Kairi, Keiko, Yusuke, and a half-drunken Atsuko who was being supported by Shizuru all turned to the camera and smiled (except for Akira and Hiei of course, they still looked board).

"Okay, Hold it," the photographer continued, getting ready to snap the picture. "1...2...3!" A metallic _click_ echoed through the now almost empty church.

**(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)(xxx)**

Short, I know. But hey, it is an epilogue after all, more of an after thought to wrap things up. Once again, I hope you all enjoyed this and will keep in touch with the rest of the chronicles. Arigato from both Kitsune no Kami and myself.

Ja ne!


End file.
